5 Filipino homes infusing traditional design with modern elegance this year

The redesigned home balances nostalgic touches with modern minimalism throughout its living spaces, dining room and pool house. Lino’s approach focused on creating flexible spaces that could evolve with the homeowners’ tastes through furniture and accessories rather than structural changes.

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Architect Mike Peña and his daughter Carla transformed a cliffside property in Quezon City into their dream home, capitalising on 270-degree views of the Sierra Madre Mountains and the city below. The design emphasises a seamless indoor-outdoor connection with floor-to-ceiling windows, natural ventilation and sustainable features like skylights and sun baffles. Notable spaces include Mike’s 25-car garage with an adjoining mancave, a whiskey room displaying a vintage Datsun and an expansive pool area perfect for entertaining.

The home’s design philosophy centres on bringing resort-like serenity to urban living through eco-conscious choices and material-forward design. Each room features a neutral palette enhanced by natural materials like wood, marble and stone, reducing the need for artificial lighting and cooling while maintaining an intimate connection to the surrounding landscape.

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Ada and King Puentespina transformed Ada’s mother's childhood home in Marikina into a creative sanctuary that doubles as a testing ground for their furniture brand, Nooke. The 1980s bungalow, which originally housed a leather business and workshop, had been vacant for a decade before the couple moved in. They preserved the home’s distinctive features, including adobe walls, jalousie windows and a mahogany wall, while embracing its open floor plan and lush garden filled with birds of paradise, gumamela and pine trees.

Drawing inspiration from mid-century modern style and homes of artists like Georgia O’Keeffe and Monet, the Puentespinas curated their space with travel mementoes and handcrafted pieces from local artisans. The resulting home is a bright, intentional space where afternoon light floods through arched windows, making it both a productive co-working environment and a relaxing retreat from the hustle and bustle of Manila.

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Jason Buensalido of Barchan + Architecture designed Obscura House as a response to Manila’s vertical urban density, creating a distinctive home that honours Filipino architectural heritage while remaining sustainable and functional. Rather than maximising the narrow plot with a typical rectangular footprint, the architects crafted an L-shaped plan with an unconventional dual-entry sequence, as the first door leads to an intermediate porch with a dipping pool while the second opens to the main living space. Grey-tinted glass panels and adjustable aluminium slats balance privacy with natural light and cross-ventilation, minimising energy consumption while echoing traditional Filipino porosity.

By celebrating exposed structural elements and prioritising climate-responsive design over trends, Obscura House demonstrates how contemporary Filipino architecture can emerge from intentional problem-solving and cultural understanding.

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Monette and Guita Saenz-Resurreccion spent the pandemic meticulously restoring Casa San Rafael, an Art Nouveau heritage home originally built in the 1910s by architect Tomas Mapua. The 750-square-metre residence was a wedding gift to Guita’s great-grandparents and served various roles throughout history, including housing Japanese Imperial Army officers during World War II. Architects Jun Velez and Monette Resurreccion dismantled and relocated the home piece by piece from San Miguel, Manila, to Parañaque City, carefully preserving original features such as the handcrafted callados (wooden latticework), wrought iron grilles and stained glass windows.

The restored home blends antique Filipino furniture with contemporary touches, showcasing the couple’s impressive collections of Ming dynasty plates, century-old ivory santos carvings and a Fernando Amorsolo painting of homeowner Monette Resurreccion’s mother and grandmother. Key heirloom pieces include a rare Batangas mesa altar, a late-1800s narra lansena from Pampanga, and an intricately carved four-poster bed from Ilocos. 

Designed for Manila’s tropical climate with cross-ventilation through large windows and high ceilings, the home features molave wood lion heads carved into the roof, Machuca mosaic tiles on the terrace, and a modernised backyard pool area, creating a sanctuary where Philippine architectural heritage meets comfortable modern living.

Read more about this home here.

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