October 17, 2025
“Maintaining Impermanence: Constructing Identity in the Philippines” opened this past Thursday in the Yale School of Architecture’s North Gallery. The exhibition was curated by Karina Encarnación, Alberto Martínez García, Sam Algas, Pericles Bien, and Marisa Crandall. García is pursuing the Graduate Certificate in the Environmental Humanities. He studies models of housing such as the one he is pictured with below.
The exhibition explores the transformation of the built environment of the Philippines by examining indigenous building techniques and the subsequent introduction of colonial styles of architecture. Colonial architecture displaced local knowledge systems and disrupted cultural identities that were based on connections to the local environment. This poses unique challenges to reclaiming local customs and identities, as well as conserving and adapting to the natural environment in present-day. The exhibition displays physical models of housing techniques, material samples, and a gallery of photographs to show these transformations.
The opening included a roundtable with scholars Mae-ling Lokko (Yale School of Architecture), Roz Li (Bakas Pilipinas), and Ana Labrador (University of Melbourne), who discussed traditional knowledge, climate adaptation, impermanence, and conservation in the Philippines. The exhibition will be open until November 15th.
