Interviews med William Jr Ti

We wanted to create a truly open public stadium that would allow free and unrestricted access.

We wanted to ensure that the project becomes a vital part of the community.

We hope to develop this idea further with our next projects.

About 8 months.

This design was commissioned by the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte.

No it's not.

Our desire to create more open public spaces.

The design of the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium in Athens.

The people of Laoag, especially the neighboring university.

It's a stadium park funded by public money for the use of the public.

It is named after one of our former presidents.

Pen and paper. Modeling and rendering software.

The open end that allows people to just wander into the stadium.

Our engineering consultants.

New uses for old materials.

Yes we had to make sure there were adequate emergency exits in place and ideal viewing angles.

Convincing the client to make this open and accessible to the public.

We wanted to call more attention to the idea of making publicly funded stadiums open to the public.

We learned how to better deal with various government agencies.

I've always been interested in visual narratives and creating settings since I was a child. I grew up enjoying sketching and painting but I only really got into design after learning how much of a social impact it could have.

WTA is a 120 strong group of architects and designers based in Manila, Philippines focused on developing a social architecture that helps connect and nurture our communities.

Design is creating new ideas for a changing world.

Cultural and institutional public spaces that have a huge social impact.

The Emergency Quarantine Facilities that provided a quick and scalable response to the need for medical space during the pandemic.

An outdoor karaoke bar.

I love using stone and sketching on my notebook.

Late at night when its quiet and I can just keep sketching out ideas.

I focus on finding the core purpose instead of mere function.

I can't help but smile when I hit an idea that I've been looking for for some time.

Awe. I feel in awe of the scale that our work takes and when I see people using the spaces we design.

The people who use them.

I look for purpose and social impact and what new idea it introduces.

We are the primary caretakers of our built environment and ensure that humanity progresses and does not keep using oild ideas.

Design is becoming more collaborative and more personal.

2023 in Budapest. We hope to do one in Feb 2025.

From watching people and how they interact with each other and the spaces they occupy.

Social architecture is our design agenda focused on creating socially intimate, barrier free spaces that help grow our communities.

I live in the Philippines and the density of our cities forces us to come up with new ideas to help address the incredible need for public space.

We collaborate with various engineering and design firms to deliver our projects.

Have a good idea of what you want not just in terms of form and function but also the purpose.

We like breaking down a project into various components and reimagining how they can be evolved and come together to better use and purpose.

Drawing Pen

Notebook

mobile phone

work table

lounge sofa

I wake up late in the morning at around 9-10am and answer my messages and emails. Have external meetings after lunch till late afternoon. Close the day with meetings in the office. Play with my daughter and have dinner. Relax for a bit then work from 12am to 3am.

Don't just ask what else you can do but also look for what more you can achieve.

Being a designer allows us to change the world but also gives us many more failures and frustrations than wins and triumphs.

The best designs and plans are those that seem so natural it is not evident where the design input is.

Passion and ambition. Listening to and understanding people.

Just usually my pen and my notebook and colleagues I can throw my ideas around with.

I compartmentalize my projects and work so I can check off items one by one.

The initial design takes 1-2 months and another 6-8 months to develop.

How much will this cost?

Learning how to make custom components in the machine shop.

Most of our clients are government agencies and real estate developers.

Sketching out initial ideas.

We plan to get more international projects and become more involved in various design festivals abroad.

We work as a team.

We're currently working on the tallest church in Asia and the largest exhibition center in Southeast Asia.

You can contact us at contact@wtadesignstudio.com

Social Architecture is the overall design agenda pushed by our studio. It began with the Book Stop Project 8 years ago and we have managed to develop and implement its various principles in our project. The very idea for the Marcos Stadium came from initial sketches we were doing of the bay sections. We realized that if we just kept these sections as the facade we would be able to create an open ended stadium that is open to all. To develop this further, we linked it with the Rizal Park in front and removed the road separating the stadium from the adjoining Mariano Marcos State University, allowing the students to access the stadium feely.

We wanted to reduce the visual scale of the stadium and allow people to see the pattern without seeing the whole building. While visiting the markets we noticed the prevalence of the inabel fabrics and the binakol patterns. The incorporation of this pattern with its traditional intent of breaking up solid colors allowed us to create a more human scale for the stadium exterior.

The sloping lawn allows us to extend the Rizal Park into the stadium itself and invites people to walk up and come visit the stadium as they pass by. The amphitheater acts as a public and free seating area that encourages people to mingle and rest when jogging around the track or just visiting the stadium. Together they provide a visually identifiable convenient and accessible space for everyone who comes by for a visit.

The main facade and roof element uses corrugated PVC panels which are used for warehouses and poultry farms in the region. This makes the material incredibly accessible and easy to use, allowing us to reduce the cost of the building envelope to 20% of what it could have cost. The early decision to use this material allowed us to explore how we would use color and mock up patterns throughout the early part of the construction period. It also shaped how we developed the connections and fastening joints for the stadium. In the end, this material allowed us to develop something that is both familiar and affordable for the community.

The removal of the dividing road was the first challenge. It meant we had to reroute traffic in the area to create a new connecting promenade. We also had to go through meetings with various stakeholders to convince them to remove the fences and barriers that segregated the spaces.

We believe that free and open access to public facilities encourages its usage. Its immediate visibility and free access makes for a less intimidating space especially for young people and encourages their curiosity to try it.

The first strategy was the decision to have it inside the city where people can easily go to the stadium without having to plan a trip to it. It allows the stadium to become a daily or weekly place for the community. The other strategy involves the removal or deletion of gates and barriers that would otherwise bar access to the stadium grounds. This social architecture creates a friendlier and more inviting atmosphere for young and old people alike.

We had to choose lightweight materials and minimize quantities to maximize the sustainability of the project. The project truly embraces the less is more ideal by incorporating less barriers and very little walls if any. We also looked at materials that would require less machinery and equipment and those that the local labor would be able to install effectively.

We've seen how the community takes pride in it and how they incorporate it into their daily or weekly exercise regimen. It has hosted the largest gatherings in the province twice already and has become the main social space for Ilocos Norte. The students from Mariano Marcos University have used it more often for school activities and unexpectedly people have been jogging around the perimeter of the stadium as well along the promenade and talking about the birdsong that they now here from the old trees that lie the promenade.

We hope that this stadium shows how social architecture can vastly improve our public buildings and create a more open and free approach to public facilities.In developing nations most especially, the underprivileged and undocumented population are often intimidated from accessing many of the public spaces that they need the most. This is a great first step to promoting how we can further develop social architecture as we continue to build upon ideas we have learned from this project.