Arch. Marvin Tolete, uap
Principal Architect
Marvin Tolete Architects
is an architectural firm in the Philippines founded in 2016. The firm specializes in modern Filipino architecture with design focuses on simplicity, stability, and sustainability. The Philippines is a relatively hot country with an average annual temperature of 27.1 °C. The country is prone to natural disasters like typhoons, earthquakes, floods, and volcanic eruptions; designing buildings in such conditions requires careful planning and selection of materials. Architecture designed in such place needs to be sensitive to its geographic location for it to work effectively and efficiently.
The firm follows seven guiding principles in designing their projects: beauty, economy, intelligence, strength, care, agility, and nationalism. Through these principles, they are able to design projects suited for Filipinos. Beauty and economy are about creating aesthetically pleasing structures with low construction and maintenance costs. Intelligence and strength refer to a constant striving for innovation with durable structure and materials. Care and agility are about creating safe and time-efficient construction. Nationalism is about designing buildings according to its location with careful understanding of its people, community, and culture.
The firm mainly uses monochromatic tones with the use of humble concrete finishes on their projects; avoiding vibrant color scheme makes the spaces visually silent and is the key to emphasize the people more than the space. They believe that architecture is about people and architecture is about creating a stage for the lives of its users. Making a building sensitive to its environment makes it sustainable and making a building sensitive to its users makes it an architecture.
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