LIVING WITH NATURE

Architect Royal Pineda finds all his design principles, and more, converging into this house inspired by a mere mushroom

- Chit L Lijauco

The owners of this breathtaking retreat are a Filipino couple who lived and worked in Singapore for a long time. But now, they felt, it was time to go back home, to find a spot in nature, and say goodbye to the cold comforts of a manmade world. They had already acquired earlier the perfect place: a 1,068sqm forested property high on a ridge, fronting the sea. What can be more paradisal than this?

So, they called an architect who shared their vision and advocated Modern Filipino Living, where design celebrates nature and its elements of sun, wind and sea. Royal Pineda immediately saw his design concept fitting right in; moreover, he saw it expanding to an extra dimension and be called, more appropriately, Modern Filipino Island Living. But the place had more in store for him.

On one of his ocular visits to the property, Pineda spotted mushrooms growing on the trees. “They were beautiful, and I just thought that it would be nice to design something so organic to the place instead of going against the lines of nature,” he said. He loved the lines of the common toadstool (“They were not rigid and angular”) and knew he had found his inspiration. But will his clients agree? “Like what we usually do, we first present the entire inspiration, the foundation of the design,” the architect shared. “What is so great about these clients is that they allowed us to stay creative. They just allowed us to create something that the site deserves.” As such, The Mushroom House was born. However, a critical point that his clients impressed upon Pineda was that this would not just be their beach house or weekend house but their residence.