DOCE Design + Build reinvents a dilapidated building nestled at the backend of Aldea Warehouse Compound.

Avenue for Artistry and Community

It has been ratified that the 17th edition of the longest-running artist-led biennale in Southeast Asia, VIVA ExCon (Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference), will be held in Antique on November 2023. The festival’s curatorial and management team determined the venues to be in the towns of San Jose de Buenavista and Sibalom. One of the venues was the UMMMA Aldea Warehouse Compound, a place of historical significance and rustic character which sits at the junction of Sibalom. Entrusted to revitalize the site-specific spaces for the biennale, entitled,” Suba Sa Iraya” (Return to Headwaters or Counterflow), DOCE Design + Build began the inner-workings at Building 5.

Intersections of Perception

The project brief was to revitalize the timeworn edifice whilst preserving the entrenched nuances of the ruins as a café. The festival organizers envisioned a space that encourages communal connections between individuals, their artistic inclinations, and the built environment itself. Nevertheless, they aspire a space that enables convergence between art, culture, history and tradition of the locality and beyond.

Tangible Translations

Instilling the collective considerations, our design intent sought to evoke spatial synergy of juxtaposition by integrating imprints of vernacular architecture to the existing concrete form. An open-plan was expressed as the design strategy to grant an incessant flow of human movement and perspective. The dining area was equipped by unconventional furniture setting to allow a laidback ambience to the occupants. The serving counter was substantially positioned on the right side of the building in order to provide the attendants a full-view of the dining experience without obstructions. Outdoor seating arrangements were provided to create an extensive space for gatherings. Other than the renovated restroom, two other public toilets— one for male and one for female— were built at the rear of the building to accommodate a large number of costumers.

Sentient Spaces

Enriched by the endemic vegetation of its surrounding, the café ruins sit harmoniously within the regional landscape. The unyielding beauty of concrete remnants and tarnished corrugated sheets concur with the well-grounded strength of the resilient bamboo and reclaimed wood. Not to mention the theatric interplay of light and shadows brought by the perceptive orientation of the building. Paying homage to VIVA ExCon Antique’s theme, DOCE Design + Build architectural rendition of Aldecro Warehouse Collective is a reverberation of the relentless character of a river to connect communities beyond their philosophies and topographies. It emphasizes the notion that our source is deeply rooted and it binds both man and nature from the essential past towards the transcending future.