After 50 years of work and over a thousand trips around the globe, Palafox has named his legacy project in the country The Aerotropolis, which is currently being built in Bulacan by the San Miguel Corporation. The envisioned expanse will be among the largest airports this side of the world and will serve as the base of a model green industrial city by 2050. For the principal architect and designer of Palafox Associates (his namesake company that is the first Filipino architectural firm to be included in the Top 500 Architectural Firms in the World), there is no overnight success to be had in such a dream; but true to his values for environmental planning and sustainability, the significant impact will require time and cooperation. Palafox has mentored hundreds of architects and urban planners through lectures across Harvard University, MIT and the University of the Philippines, among others.

He was the youngest Filipino architect and urban planner on the team that built Dubai, where he spent more than a decade creating the architectural design guidelines on top of the progressive city’s building code. Literally creating the most future-ready city from dirt and sand, Jun Palafox has seen the blueprint of the seemingly impossible come to reality. He believes there is hope yet for the Philippines and its urban jigsaw puzzle.