Postcards from the Future
Philippine Real Estate FestivalJuly 24-26, 2008
VENUE: SMX CONVENTION CENTER Seashell Drive, Mall of Asia, Pasay City
"Another learning opportunity for me...Three days ago I went to MOA with mom and my aunt who arrived that same day from Koronadal to check out SMX's current exhibit. Being a certified real estate broker she encouraged me to go to there. I have always been fascinated with houses (I'm a frustrated architect!) and the investing process that goes with it so I was excited.
Inside the hall, were a mixture of everything - from construction businesses to housing loans to buying and selling of properties. But what catches my attention most was the talk given by world renowned Pinoy archi-genius Jun Palafox and his "Postcards from the Future".
Who is Palafox? Within an hour of hearing his talk, I instantly saw a good hearted Pinoy. Aside from his talent, his growing desire to make the Philippines a more condusive place to live- more walkable streets, more secured, less polluted but modernized eco-friendly city.
In his piece, he tackled about mistakes made in architectural planning here in the Philippines. For a very long time, we followed Los Angeles architecture, instead, we should be inspired by the architectural designs of Paris and Venice. He also wanted to inspire Filipinos to build more windows to create a sense of "connection" within nearby properties (plus takot ang mga magnanakaw sa mga bintana!). According to Feng Shui experts, our country should have more buildings facing the pacific, the sunrise area...sadly most of our buildings here were facing the sunset, including Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas...ayan palubog tuloy ang economy natin! Bilboards? Visual pollution lang yan!
On the latter part of his talk was dedicated to the future of architecture. As many foresees, by the year 2010, the calculated traffic would be an alarming 3kms per hour! Walkathon ito! So what the 21st century will be? According to him, the next century will be a "RE" century - reuse, recycle, rebuild. And the "Postcards from the Future"? Well this is a series of architural plans made by architects and engineers from Palafox Associates visualizing significant places in the country and what it could look like few years from now, just like the Pasig River.
Future Pasig River! 
The Vision
The VisionThe rehabilitation will effect a paradigm shift from back-of-the-house to front-door of development, creating a vibrant river corridor that is walkable and that links the different areas of the city.By 2015, a revitalized Pasig River will be the showcase of multi-sectoral synergy and model for sensitive developments conducive to living, working, and studying, abundant with parks and greenery, host to a range of activities and exemplary architecture
The Pasig River Redevelopment
DESCRIPTION: To redevelop Pasig River waterways and riverbanks in order to increase tourism, alleviate traffic, cap toxic substances that pollute the once fabled and revered river in history and literary books, revitalize its waters so as to make the river fit for bathing, fish catching, and as a transport system.
PROJECT COMPONENTS: One focus site of the redevelopment is the Makati-Mandaluyong area spanning from the Guadalupe Bridge to Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge. Another is the area in Intramuros known as the Muelle del Rio.We went out the building armed with plenty of brochures, leaflets, news magazines and with ideas ready to take action.
