Architect Jason Buensalido talks about his unique take on designing the Screen House

This avenue creates separation and allows for cross-ventilation which explains the installation of screens and louvres. The design team considered the elemental factors in the Philippine setting and the orientation of the home which tends to receive long hours of sunlight and intense heat. However, through this tunnel design, the architects achieved what is called the “Venturi effect” where negative pressure aspirates the warm air that is then channelled through an oculus at the centre of the house. The result is cooler temperatures all throughout the home, no matter the time of day.

The 720-square-metre structure sits on a longitudinal lot within a family compound. All the homes face a shared pool and open area. The verdant gardens, dotted with koi ponds, were designed by renowned landscape architect, Bobby Gopiao.

“The homeowner is a mother with two teenage children, and working in the family business of real estate development,” shares Buensalido. “Coming from a close-knit family, she lives within the same three-lot compound as her parents. She wanted something that was contemporary and unique, and she sought us out because that’s precisely what we do at Buensalido+Architects. The reason why we always end up with this kind of architecture is that we live in the contemporary era, we live in contemporary times. We don’t really believe in replicating the past and force-fitting it in the present. There may be an imagined future but all we really have is the now. Therefore, this reflects our collective lifestyle as a people, as a country, and as a world. That is why our designs are always in a contemporary and contextual expression.”

Truly independent from any design trends, Buensalido and his team worked to look internally and understand the clients and their needs, values and continually evolving lifestyles. Then this was visually expressed through a layering of materials where both natural and artificial elements come together to create a harmonious whole.

The architecture of the house is defined by diagonal lines cutting through huge volumes of wood and concrete. Buensalido explains, “Basically there are solid planes and voids, solids being the walls that you see, voids being the glass areas. Assignment of plane types is simply an expression of the function. For example, for areas where ventilation and light are needed, like the bedrooms, we assigned glass to that. For areas where you need privacy, such as the bathrooms, we assigned the solid planes.”

The architect also played with height and dimension. “The bathrooms have lower ceiling heights and the bedroom has higher ones. The diagonal sections you see outside serve as a visual negotiation between the variances in ceiling heights. This developed the architectural language which expressed those simple functions,” Buensalido elaborates. The statements are made immediately at the front door, which features a set of bold and sculptural handles by the artist Jinggoy Buensuceso. Through the threshold, one enters a long avenue running through the entire length of the house leading one’s eyes to rest on the inviting pool at the end. Once in the foyer, the visitor doesn’t realise that technically he is still “outside” as the space is just an enclosure surrounded by louvred windows. Buensalido shares, “We wanted to play around with the concept of the door.”

The owner enjoys entertaining at home; therefore, even the common spaces were designed to hold multiple guests at the same time. She specifically requested a long table for 12 because of the number of family and friends that often frequent and linger. Buensalido focused on centring the dining area as an axis and supporting the client’s needs with a highly functional bar area that serves as a buffet table and media centre on the side of the room. The dining, bar, and living areas are all open to the lanai with inviting outdoor furniture by Kettal and the refreshing pool stretching out to the gym.

“We rarely sit in the living room; when we congregate with friends and family, we’re always in the dining area,” declared the owner to Buensalido at the start of the project. Hence the living area serves only as a temporary stop for new guests maybe, much like a reception area. “Most of the time we are sitting around a table sharing a meal or a drink,” she explained.

The singular design running throughout the house is the result of a client-architect relationship that embodied mutual trust and respect. The details of the lighting, finishes, furniture and flow of space are a manifestation of this and are unmistakably felt.

“We love concrete finishes and being honest with the materials. The concrete look has been very commercialised and there are many substitutes in the market but for this house, we used the real thing. Sometimes it’s hard to convince clients because the finish of concrete is subjective. Not everyone can understand that concrete is imperfect and can crack a little, but that it’s perfectly okay,” Buensalido says.

The guest room features doors to the garden that slide completely open, and the whole bathroom is enclosed in clear glass, mimicking those in boutique hotels. Even when the glass doors pocket and disappear, the room still feels secure because the traffic in that area is controlled.

The other entries are shut, and the landscape adds to that secure feeling.

The one-of-a-kind house is a successful fusion of indoors and outdoors done through clever use of screens, jalousies and modularity of spaces. “Artificial vs manmade, privacy vs openness, the screens allow the marriage of these polarities,” says Buensalido.

Despite delays in construction caused by the pandemic, the house has adapted to change quite easily since it has been thoughtfully designed to grow with the fluctuating needs of the times.

“We see architecture as an animated object, it must be able to adapt to change, and that’s why the modularity is there. We haven’t altered any of our projects after the pandemic. It’s truly nice for the clients to say we have designed a pandemic-ready house. They’d say, ‘Jason since you pushed me to have a balcony or an outdoor dining, we were able to enjoy the outdoors during the lockdown.’”

Buensalido says there must be a great meeting of minds between the client and the designer. In this case, the client approached his firm precisely for this forward-thinking and bold outlook. “We have a core of shared values and beliefs in the office that we have been doing ever since we started the firm. Of course, we’re always willing to compromise to a certain extent. We never impose solutions on a client unless we understand their objectives. It all depends on their way of life. I may have a solution but since living is subjective, one may always have different solutions,” he remarks.