PGAA Entry to the 2019 Freedom Memorial Design Competition
Team Composition:
Paulo G. Alcazaren
Doni Ray Alfaro
Encarnacion Tan
Jose Roman Abad
Marie Christine Endencia
All sites are unique and have a physiographic and landscape character that can and should be used to frame the proposed development.
It is appropriate that the Freedom Memorial Museum is located in the acknowledged bastion of freedom that is the University of the Philippines. The 493-hectare campus also has a legacy of being an oasis of green in the midst of a metropolis that is overwhelmingly dense and devoid of open green space.
One cannot propose new structures in this setting and suggest removing mature strands of trees. The design solution must also look at sustainability using key building material already on site or that can be sourced there.
We first conducted a drone survey of the project site, as well as its immediate surroundings. This was done on two different days, in several flights that also covered the ten-hectare open green space between the site and University Avenue.
The metadata from the 300 or so high-resolution images of the survey were processed into a photomosaic and a point-cloud 3D image of the site, its existing natural and built elements. The survey yielded the exact locations and heights of all existing mature trees with their crown diameters, as well as the plant health of vegetative cover of the site. The survey also determined relative ground elevations, as well as locations of all existing structures and infrastructure.
The drone survey and subsequent analysis of the site led to identifying two major areas to fit both architectural and landscape architectural spaces, WITHOUT THE LOSS OF A SINGLE TREE.