- In 2017, my father felt the strong urge to move to El Nido. He was always looking for
the next big adventure. That year, he closed his shop in Cubao. He wanted to get away from the
city and build crazy things. Here I just tagged along with him. Hi, my name is Justin
Guiab. I'm an architect - And name is wife Sarah and
we live in El Nido Palawan. - The house has a footprint
of 1000 square feet and the floor area is
about 1,500 square feet. I wanted to live close to
nature away from people, but I still had to visit sites and get internet access for my work. Fortunately, I found this
land that had connection to electricity despite
being so far from town, but it was still remote enough
to feel close to nature. - There are small waterfalls
nearby that are nice to go to and a beautiful lake
that is even still full of water in the dry season. It is a great place for
our baby to grow up in. I think this close to untouched nature. - It is a very interesting experience to design something for myself. It was the first time I got to explore and be as creative as I wanted, but also it's the first
time I actually felt the repercussions of cost. Now I understand better
how to design for others. - He made sure that
there are a lot of views 'cause I like nice views. I think it's very well
balanced between us both. Everything's open, the plants are here. I think it might even be more
suited to what I like than what he likes sometimes. 'cause he really made sure
that it's comfortable for me. And then when we found out
that we were having Janu, we just kept on building
it the way you planned it. Originally we didn't really
think about baby proofing anything, but it's okay 'cause we're very close
to him all the time. - I started by studying the natural characteristics of the environment. I tried to design the house
so we could live as close to nature as possible. I tried to get to know the
trees, the birds, the animals, and the insects that lived here. When I first found this land,
we cleared it a little bit, but we kept all the trees. I spent a good amount of
time here studying the wind and the sun at different times of the day. The house is oriented towards
the winds, so we get a lot of natural ventilation. We follow the slope of the
land, so the levels are as close to the natural levels as possible. We also have some gaps in the
roof to let the natural light. I feel like every project
has a life of its own. So I kept asking the house
what it wanted to be. Later it told me where to
build and what it could become. The house is totally open. There's a blurred line
between inside and outside. We tried to use humble
materials, wood, clay, ramed, earth, concrete. We used wood that is
native to the Philippines. Most wood that is planted in
the Philippines are non endemic species of wood like mahogany or gmelina. These species are chosen because they grow faster
than endemic trees, but planting these non-endemic
wood damages the ecosystem. It tried to make the
house as open as possible, so there's not really one
way to enter the house. We don't have a main door, so you can step into the
house from any level. Most of the homes here in Happy
Valley are open like that. I think it shows how peaceful it is here. The original plan was
to have a small kitchen and dining space and a
small living room beside it. But instead, maybe it would be interesting to combine all these spaces into one. We built a big table that
serves as a kitchen counter, the dining table, and the
living space together. We wanted to make the table feel light so we cantilevered it out the wall set. Hold up the table. Also hide
the plumbing, electrical, and gas lines and serves as some storage. The water we use in the house
comes from a nearby spring and is clean enough to drink. It's charged with ions
and is full of minerals. The pocket garden is a
very functional space. When we come home from
the beach, we come here to wash off the sand from our feet. The plants that we used
are called swamp tarros. They love water so they're
perfect for this area. The water from the bathrooms
flow into the space, so the plants help filter
and absorb the water. We designed the opening of the
roof to letting natural light and to help provide natural
ventilation when we cook and for hotter days. These green chairs are from my dad and the other chairs
are made from old wood. We collected from the forest. I thought it would be interesting
to make stools out of them and it doesn't take away from
the simplicity of the table. - The animals are here because there are so
many spaces to be filled. I love animals so much. I think they all fit in
quite well with each other. - Sometimes there are animals
that come in and get our food. We needed to have a place
that we could close off. So we made this pantry space. We designed an oculus on the ceiling so we can let in some
natural light during the day and allow the space to be ventilated. Above the enclosed rooms. We have loft spaces where guests can set up their
beds when they come and visit. The roof is oriented towards
the Han and Haga winds. So there's a lot of good
natural air airflow here when there are no guests,
the baby likes to play here with the cats, it's a
space where we can do yoga and rest while looking at the mountains. The roof is made of cogon,
which is a type of grass. The cogon insulates from the heat well and also lasts better than
other native roofs like pawid. which comes from a leaf of a palm. We had to make the slope
of the roof quite steep so it lasts longer. We tied the cogon to the perlins
with the ratan, which is what the local suggested. They said it's how their
grandfather built their houses before. It's interesting to think how far back people have been
building with these methods. Could be hundreds of years, could be thousands of years. Our bedroom is very simple. We just have cabinets on one side and a long desk on the other side. I wanted the desk to look
as simple as possible, so it is supported by just two legs. To provide stability, we concealed additional
supports to the wall. The lights in the bedroom are simple, linear lights facing the
wall in the cabinets. We tried to only have indirect
lighting throughout the house. In nature Most light is
ambient light from the sky. We tried to replicate as close to natural lighting
conditions as we could. Our bathroom was designed to be open but still protected from the elements. We brought in a big
rock from a river nearby and it took us three months
to carve it into a bathroom. This is where my wife gave
birth to our child Janu. Water has a powerful healing effect. The water comes from a nearby spring. So every day when we
shower in the morning, we get charged from the
ions in the spring water. This is the guest room,
or most days the study. When I use this as an office, I do most of my design work here. I spend a lot of time here
reading architecture books, And when I get tired from
looking at the screen for too long, I just look out the window and look at the mountains
in the afternoon. The light hits the trees nicely. We wanted the rooms to be able to open up if you wanted natural wind. So the carpenters I worked with helped build these
wood sliding doors for us. After living here for a while, it really feels like the
perfect place to live and raise my family. Being here, we like to live
quite connected to nature. Now that I've been
living here for a while, I understand more how to design for others and how my designs translate
to living in the house. I feel lucky to be living
in such a beautiful place. We live here, but the
insects and animals live here before us and as they build
their homes in our home, I feel happy to share it with them. 'cause this is really their space and we're just trying
to coexist with them. "Nakikitira lang kami"
