Arki tekturang Filipino : a history of architecture and urbanism in the Philippines / Gerard Lico.

In English.

it is a compelling scheme that charts the direction of the study of architecture in the Philippines. With copious photographs and archival materials sorted out and analyzed in relation to ideas and prepositions, this book turns out to be a vital contribution to our understanding of the abode of a most inhabited art. Indeed, with a sense of greadth and attentionto the details of terrain, a horizon has been decidedly set. (Source: Back Cover)

then, the translation into English, an attempt to reckon architecture cross-culturaly. A tension stirs between an identity of architecture that named Filipino and the locus of practice that is the Philippines, wavering between gestures of nomination and emplacement. It is a strain that is productive, and in fact may shape the very travail of writing about art and its locale, its universe. This is intended to be a textbook for students of architecture who must learn to appreciate the lineage of their vocation. But it is more than just a catalogue of facts and figures

There is at the outset an unease caused by the title. The main phrase speaks of "Arkitekturang Filipino," an expansive territory that is rescaled as "Architecture and Urbanism in the Philippines." First, the scene of the vernacular, an instance of an irreducible particular