On top of her game

“Throughout my career, I never really paid attention to the fact that I am in a male-dominated industry,” said Bronet to Tatler in a sit-down conversation after the tours with the alumni. “I just saw myself as somebody equal to whomever I was working with,” she said. Realising that gender inequality in workspaces happened later in her life, she nevertheless has always been headstrong and focused on getting things done.

Coming from a working-class family in Canada with a father who’s a Holocaust survivor, Bronet knew she had to prioritise excellence. She earned a degree in architecture and engineering from McGill University, licenced by the Quebec Ordre des Architects, and practised in Montreal. She went to the USA and received a graduate degree in architecture from Columbia University. She later went back to Montreal, balancing building houses and teaching. When she finally moved to the USA, she taught in New York, Oregon and Chicago.

“Since I was 17, I’ve always wanted to lead a think tank,” she said. When Bronet was studying at Columbia University, she used to go to Pratt Institute as a member of the Architects, Designers, Planners for Social Responsibility. “I knew how powerful Pratt was for political action, and that was important to me—the relationship between city government and educational institutions and what we could do to make things better,” she said.

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Filipino pride

“I have never seen a more compassionate and intellectually generous community,” Bronet described the Filipino Pratt alumni.

Bronet was impressed by how Dom Galicia and his wife Tina Periquet transformed the National Museum of Natural History from an old government building into a place of life. Spaces for mundane things, like elevators and ramps, were turned into phenomenal sections with multiple views and the sense of being enclosed and liberated. Later in the evening, they took Bronet to Arya Residences, a two-tower luxury condominium compound with a courtyard. Bronet noted Galicia and Periquet’s vast range of work, from institutional to commercial, given the same level of articulation, and the utmost attention to lighting, movement, texture, surfaces and volumes of each space.

Bronet was thrilled to know from Joey Yupangco, founding dean of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, that Pratt’s curriculum helped shape Benilde’s. “The building itself is one of the best pieces of architecture that I have ever seen,” says Bronet, commending the work of Ed Calma, the architect behind the SDA Campus. She noted its self-ventilation, natural lighting through its corridors’ windows and pragmatic spaces. Meanwhile, Calma’s Mind Museum made Bronet realise that an architect’s intentions can still be visible and manifest despite the numerous things presented to visitors.

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The Design Center of the Philippines (DCP), led by its executive director Rhea Matute, abounds with numerous possibilities for collaboration with the Pratt Institute, Bronet said. “At Pratt, we look at local materials, enabling communities with thriving craft economies, and many more. And many of DCP’s leaders went to Pratt!” During her visit, an alumnus even brought his student ID, which made Bronet ecstatic, while the presentation of the young leaders deeply moved her to tears.

Cobonpue’s work for Bronet was incredibly sensual and sublime, not only because of the materials’ texture but even how they affect sound and light. Yupangco’s architectural work took her back to the teachings of Rowena Reed on form, space and light—something that immensely influenced Cobonpue, too. Lastly, Nestor Vinluan’s thesis work at Pratt Institute (a painting titled Six Squares) and Impy Pilapil’s glass sculpture are yet to be exhibited at the M (Metropolitan Museum’s new name) but Bronet was able to see them during installation. She commented that one should see these artists’ progression in their craft as these are precursors of the oeuvre they are famous for now.

Pushing the envelope

Bronet discovered in her trip that aside from the foundational knowledge, the alumni’s works manifest their commitment to engaging with their viewers. “It’s important in our pedagogy, this reciprocity in the design between the occupant and the designer, who are rooted in their own culture and history,” Bronet said.

“The breadth of the creatives’ education is not just in making an artefact, but the relationship of that artefact, process, building, policy, landscape, to the larger condition. If the students could see it as a collective, there would be a larger impact on the community development,” Bronet advised.

The thread that binds the Pratt community is their sensitivity to the future and the people’s way of living. Glaring issues around climate and sustainability, as well as equity and access, are just some of the current concerns of the Pratt community.

“Let’s take the technology and not be afraid of its consequences. We are experimenters and should look at alternatives. Creatives have a way of looking at things not as disjunctive but as opportunities for junctures which could manifest as products or policies. Pratt Institute’s mantra is to create professionals who are deeply creative, open-minded, and accountable to the world.”

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