Any vision of the future can claim relevance only if it is moored in the past. To pause and reflect upon the design developments that have shaped our mundane lives in the last century is a necessary step in claiming our design futures. Through a design and style retrospection, we appreciate the divers ways in which design practitioners and their products of creativity respond to the givens imposed by the Philippine situations – its socio-cultural environment, political circumstances, geophysical climate and ecology, and the rigors of technology and economy – to transform the texture of 'everyday' spaces into a designed environment that is livable, comfortable and aesthetically applicable for the Filipino.

This compendium presents some diverse examples that capture the ingenuity of unsung heroes - designers and innovators - and their products that changes lives of the Filipino across decades of the 20th century, that will invoke some form of nostalgia and remembrance of the past.

Published in 2024 by the University of the Philippines College of Architecture

Co-Published by Archivo 1984 and Arc Lico International Services

395 pages / Paperback