During the past couple of years Philippines has been ranked the lowest in tourism. According to ABS-CBN News reported by Gillan Ropero (2017, May 02), the Philippines’ tourism ranking dropped five notches, according to the 2017 World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Travel and Competitive Report. In the year 2017, the country ranked 79th out of 136 countries, while it ranked 74th out of 141 countries in 2015. In addition, just a few weeks ago, there has been a news about Boracay to shut down. From UNTV News & Rescue (2018, February 13), it reported forty percent or around 300 establishments in Boracay were found to have been causing water pollution as they fail to comply with the country’s sewerage regulations, according to Department Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Roy Cimatu. With this, the DENR chief announced the closure of non-compliant establishments in the famous tourist destination. In remedy to this, the Duterte administration has been investing $23 billion in tourism infrastructure. The reason tourists usually come to Philippines is because of its wonderful flora and fauna, beautiful corals that can be found in Coron, Apo Reef and Monad Shoals, renowned tourist sites in the Philippines, such as the Banaue Rice Terraces, the Chocolate Hills and Mt. Apo. However, the main benefits of the Tourism sector in Philippines have been the providing of foreign exchange and the creation of jobs.
One factor that can help increase tourism is architectural design. When we say Philippine architecture, most of the people says it’s bahay kubo. Why? It is stated in ThingsAsian by Ronald de Jong that bahay kubo is one of the most illustrative and recognized icons of the Philippines (2010, April 21). Withal according to Palafox (September 21, 2017), when we think of Filipino architecture, we immediately picture the bahay kubo for it reflects the ingenuity and resilience of our ancestors. It is culturally and geographically distinctive, made with local materials that are designed to adapt to the geographical climate. While the bahay kubo and bahay na bato are great inspirations, they are not, however, the only representations of our identity. Whenever we talk about Philippine architecture, we immediately remember the houses in Batanes, tropical-Hispanized Ilocos and ancient Malay-Tagalog. These are good representatives of our identity. But while it is culturally distinctive and geographically adaptive, the idea of Filipino architecture need not be narrowed down to these. We can be more creative in adapting the rich Filipino culture and biodiversity and interpreting these into architecture, design and planning.
Biomorphic architecture involves the design using the unique context and geography of the environment. One of the technical definitions of Biomorphic architecture is “the design of buildings directly influenced by animal, vegetal, human body and anatomical structure with chosen materials to create aesthetic harmony.” Its design taking inspiration from the form of organic species. This type of architecture is what the researcher thinks that could help increase the country’s tourism. The design of our buildings can take inspiration from the waves of water, flowers like sampaguita, sea shells, pearls, natural landscape and indigenous plants and animals. Through this, the analyst thinks this can help Philippines reclaim once again its popularity among beaches and increase tourism.
