EQUIPPING ARCHITECTS AGAINST THE MEGAQUAKE
The seats of Benito Sy Pow Auditorium and numerous Zoom links trembled as “The Big One” occurred last August 16, 2025. More than 300 architects, students and curious minds prepared themselves for a day of lectures and workshops on how to build safer, smarter, and stronger.
Opening the event was an invocation led by Ar. Zita Hipolito. The opening remarks were done by Ar. Edra Belga with a demo fitting to the seminar’s theme: what to do if you are in an auditorium during earthquakes. The mic was then passed to the day’s master of ceremonies, Ar. Florencio Sebastian.
The seminar started with an overview on seismology and a local situationer by DOST Scientist and geologist, Dr. Arturo Daag. But besides the review of common earthquake terminologies is the introduction of DOST’s Atlas on Fault Systems which can be found on their website.
He was followed by a short lecture on structural design for earthquakes by UP Arki’s own professor, Engr. John Arvin Manaloto. His portion of the seminar highlighted the value of soil investigation and how to counter its findings with proper collaboration between architects and engineers.
A seminar on disaster risk would not be complete without a section about hospitals and architecture by Ar. Shina Salazar-Samoza. As natural disasters are far too common in the Philippines, an evaluation form on healthcare design was born. The Hospital Safety Index (HSI) Tool, from the DOH, is encouraged by Ar. Shina to be applied on our projects even if it does not concern healthcare.
Resilient architecture is more than hospitals. Hence, the morning wrapped itself with the focus of this CPD event: designing earthquake resilient architecture. It was co-presented by mentor and mentee, Ar. Bronne Dytoc and Ar. Carlo Bustos. The seminar’s epicenter further radiated with a mini workshop where attendees were asked to design an earthquake resilient five storey building before and after this portion of the seminar.
With designing comes liabilities, as such the afternoon session kicks off with Atty. Dominador Bornasal Jr. giving a refresher on the legal issues architects could face due to natural disasters. He was followed by a presentation on various case studies by Ar. Ramuel Aurelio, who gave an emphasis on the importance of contract documents.
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Capping off the day was a brief on the role we architects can do post disasters led by Dr. Nathaniel von Einsiedel. Dr. Dinky stressed that while post disaster recovery is ever evolving, what we must practice even more is the mindset of long term planning before a disaster happens.
A seminar with this magnitude ends with closing remarks from Ar. Lea Manuel and a raffle from the event’s sponsors.
This seminar is dedicated to our beloved past chapter president, mentor, friend and pioneer of healthcare architecture, Ar. Cristopher Stonewall “Dean Buboy” Espina, who passed away on the morning of August 16, 2025.
