In the great room are two living room settings: one facing the dining area and another, looking out to the verdant outdoors. Also in this space are two dining areas that allow the owner to entertain with versatility—whether formal, casual, indoor or al fresco. “It was a very flexible space,” says Nazareno. “I love communing with nature. So, I always enjoy sitting by the dining area looking out at the garden and listening to the birds. I also love the big space in the living room. It’s so nice to hang out there too while listening to music,” the owner says. The only walled area here is the kitchen, which the owner wanted to keep simple, functional and organised.

The walls of the great room are dotted with the owner’s ever-growing art collection which includes coveted pieces by Fernando Zobel and Arturo Luz among many others. An interesting piece, however, is an old wood-carved table that Nazareno’s team had to refinish in order to seamlessly fit into the renovated home;  it now strikes a nice contrast with the Diaphanous, by the contemporary Filipino painter Romulo Olazo, which hangs perfectly on one of the Iranian travertine walls. “We tried to make it work for her. It was fun doing that. We made sure to keep everything that’s memorable to her,” he explains. “A simple house was my main goal, not a lot of clutter, and using pieces acquired from my ancestral home, as well as pieces purchased from abroad that have meaning. I basically gave the team a free hand. I informed them of what I wanted and requested where the important pieces be placed and they happily agreed to it. So, everything went very smoothly,” the owner happily shares. 

Read also: Home Tour: Inside Rosanna Ocampo-Rodriguez’s colourful family abode

And while the interiors are fresh and modern, it does not feel cold or intimidating; rather, it evokes warmth as if luring you to lounge or read a book in a corner. It’s a bright and cosy place that instantly makes you forget you are in the city. Just exactly how the owner envisioned it to be.

Towards the end of the great room, the eye is drawn to a unique space that segues into the private rooms where a striking sculpture by Impy Pilapil appears to be floating on a water feature. “The conduit between the great room and her private space is a hallway that has light filtering down from above. I wanted a segue to separate the two different spaces like a very clear, physical, visual, ephemeral space that makes you aware that crossing this threshold is crossing to a private space and vice versa,” Nazareno says. 

Underneath the private rooms is the owner’s personal playground. Because the owner and her husband (who unfortunately passed away in 2015 in a tragic accident) shared a penchant for health and well-being, a roofed, open-air gym that already existed in the old house was retained and revamped to fit the aesthetics of the renovated home. Combining old with the new, the narra flooring from the previous house was used in this area, which now houses a current pool, modern fitness equipment and an intimate cocktail and coffee bar. “We are all active people. We work out three times a week with a trainer. The gym will always be a part of the house and can’t be compromised. Having a bar that also serves as a coffee bar beside the gym is a bonus because we enjoy good coffee while working out. Just hanging out by the bar is pleasurable too,” says the lady of the house who now lives with two persons close to her heart, following her husband’s untimely demise. There is also a pair of old butaca, a Kenneth Cobonpue piece, and antique Italian furniture that now marry with the modern zen feel of the space.

But in order to create a breathtaking sanctuary like this, Nazareno and his team had to cast their creative spell, especially on a structure that was originally built decades ago. The old house, according to Nazareno felt “stuffy”, pretty much typical of old structures in the Philippines. “It was really a transformation,” says the principal architect. The team had to take down the walls that separated the living room and the lanai, and the lanai with the dining area. “What we did primarily was de-compartmentalised the living room. It was just redefining a lot of rooms to make it fit into the owner’s present lifestyle: the freedom of just being herself,” Nazareno narrates, adding that the owner didn’t want to have too many room clusters. So they knocked down more walls to create functional spaces such as a spa, a walk-in closet and a home office, which are all within a few steps away from the primary bedroom.

Read also: Getting to know Anthony Nazareno and his design philosophy on architecture

The open spaces were complemented with light materials such as blonde wood for the doorjambs, door framing and ceiling. Particularly, the team used thermo-treated accoya in blonde wood finish on most vertical elements of the home, which protects portions of the house from heat. “There are places in the house that face the west so it’s really hot. We made that screen to shield it from the heat,” he further explains the rationale behind using thermo-treated accoya that is appropriate for outdoors. The eaves were also extended for added protection from heat and weather, and tall glass sliding doors made the place look even bigger.

Besides the old architecture, there’s another important factor that had to be considered by the design team: the house, having been a family home prior to the 2015 incident was peppered with things the owner and her late husband amassed through the years. “There are still traces of the husband in the house to this day and I don’t want to take that away [from her],” Nazareno explains. For instance, the husband was an audiophile so he had those huge speakers all over the house–some are in red–which the team were able  to infuse in the current design. “I told her, ‘Let’s try that you be surrounded with things that you love about this house when your husband was still around’,” he adds. And so they did.

Read also: Designing for the Elements: Endika Ampudia of Estudio Arkipelago on the role of nature in architecture

If there’s one thing that the architect is happy about this project, it is that the owner and his team are aligned with what they wanted to achieve. “There’s a reason why I found myself working a lot with bespoke residential projects. I really enjoy talking to people I am designing for [because then] I [would] know who the end product is for. Just working with clients who are design aware and design savvy is great,” Nazareno wraps up.  

“I was envisioning a zen home,” the owner says. However, Nazareno and the team gave her more than this. “I’m so happy with the house that I have no plans of doing anything to it right now or in the near future,” she continues. The end product is more than a revamped house; it is a happy place. 

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