JOSE ZARAGOZA Written Report

ARCHITECTURE FOR GOD, FOR MAN 1

Jose Maria Velez Zaragoza (1912-1994) had a mission to build churches. His works comprise a significant body of ecclesiastical architecture of about 45 churches all over the country. Zaragoza treads similar paths in the Philippine architectural landscape of churches and secular building from the 1950s to the 1980s. He rose to prominence in 1954 after he did the design and supervised the construction of the Santo Domingo Church on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City. Building a church gave him the higher ground to consecrate his gift of architectural creation to Divine Providence. He was a builder, first for God, then for man.

PHILOSOPHY Zaragoza, a deeply religious man, earned a diploma in liturgical art and architecture from the International Institute of Liturgical Catholic churches in Rome. The religious structures completed during his career are Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Tala (1950), Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City (1954), Villa San Miguel in Mandaluyong (1954), Pius XII Center in Manila (1958), and finally, the controversial expansion of Quiapo Church (1984). After a study of his accomplishments, Zaragoza emerges as an unnoticed figure worthy of deeper study in the protracted search for that elusive "Filipino Architecture." Grounded in Philippine architectural vocabulary, he distilled traditional forms derived from the Spanish colonial era into the simplified, unornamented shapes of the International Style of the 1950s. In 1960 the internationally eminent Brazilian architects Oscar Niemeyer and Lucio Costa invited Zaragoza to be among the guest architects participating in the massive project of designing Brasilia, the new capital for Brazil. The Latino imprint on Zaragoza was indelible.

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Ruben Defeo, Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004),1.

EARLY CAREER 2

Zaragoza belonged to the early group of Filipino Architects schooled in the country. He graduated with the highest honors, getting a BS in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in Manila in 1936. Zaragoza passed the board examination in 1938, placing seventh in the top ten. Zaragoza’s outstanding performance in the 1938 licensure exam made him the 82nd registered architect in the country. That same year, he set up Zaragoza & Associates, Architects & Engineers, which soon became one of the leading architectural firms for many decades in the Philippines. In 1951 Zaragoza was chosen president for 3 year term on the Philippine Institute of Architects (PIA). Its establishment provided Filipino architects the much needed vehicle to advance architecture as a profession in the country. As PIA president from 1951 to 1954, Zaragoza represented the Philippines in many international gatherings of architects from all over the world. On many of these occasions, he would be the only Asian attending this conference, such as organized by the International Institute of Liturgical Art (IILA) in the late 1950’s in Rome Italy. It was from IILA where Zaragoza obtained a diploma in Liturgical art and architecture. He also held a diploma in comprehensive planning in the Netherlands. During his term as PIA president, Zaragoza had the privilege to meet and correspond over a period of years with Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), who strongly influenced his works in the 1970’s. Many of the residential projects that Zaragoza designed reflected the architectural aesthetics of Wright, who through the years had become his personal friend. In Manila, Zaragoza addressed similar architectural issues. He balanced the country’s colonial past of baroque sensibility with the new technology and the needs of the government and the city, taking into account the peculiar tropical climate and physical environs.

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Ruben Defeo, Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)42-45

PROJECTS 

TALA: HOLY ROSARY CHURCH 3

The

Tala Catholic Church, more known as the Holy Rosary Church, located in the northern territory of Caloocan City. The construction of the church in 1950 was a community effort. The impetus that pushed the construction was the spirit of volunteerism. People simply offered their time and effort in carrying out the task of building a church. The church’s construction took another month to finish from the time it started in March to its completion on October 5, 1950. The original design of the Holy Rosary Church followed the look of the popular Quonset hut with its semicircular arching roof of corrugated GI sheets. 

SANTO DOMINGO CHURCH 4

To this day, the Santo Domingo remains his most significant architectural work. The post war Santo Domingo Church was built on a lot in Quezon City bought by the Dominicans. In building the church, Zaragoza used the latest construction technology on reinforced concrete. Zaragoza’s Santo Domingo Church fused Romanesque and Gothic traditions. Although built along the Latin-cross plan and capped by a semicircular apse, the Santo Domingo manifested Zaragoza’s remarkable way to interpret traditions. As acknowledged by his peers, the unique strength of the church lay in his versatile approach to reflecting and introducing a modern way of presenting the Spanish style in architecture.

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Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)46-53. 4

Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)54-69

The uniqueness of Santo Domingo Church lies in its expansive nave, with no colonnaded aisles as is wont in bigger churches and cathedrals. Measuring 85 meters long, 40 meters wide and 25 meters high, the nave has a total floor area of 3,400 square meters making it unusually wide to accommodate as many as 7000 devotees at any given time. The interior of the church engenders a feeling of lightness, enhanced by generous filtrations of light from clerestory windows and the soaring roman arches that encased the stained glass panels. The vertical rise of the structure and the openings from every side of the church contribute to the natural cross ventilation inside. The coffered ceiling corresponds proportionately with the ample space in the nave. Deriving its basic decorative pattern from the cruciform, the design of the ceiling coffers is indigenously repeated in the various wooden doors and concrete lattice work of the church, pulling together the unified use of a dominant artistic motif.  MANILA

THE UNION CHURCH OF

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In 1975, Zaragoza displayed a admirable gesture of ecumenism when he completed the Union Church of Manila, a Methodist church. The church was across the Zaragoza Building on Gamboa st. which he designed and constructed in 1972. In the union church, Zaragoza used the lateral approach providing a horizontal or panoramic appreciation of the nave of the church. The union church had a cantilevered roof that resembled the shape of an anahaw fan molded in pure concrete. It also adopted the circular plan, thus the biomorphic shape of the roof dictated the irregular configuration of the nave or sanctuary as referred to in Protestant churches, in the interior. At that time that Zaragoza designed of the union church it was not customary yet to experiment with ambiguous forms as an architectural feature. Hence, the irregular shaped roof of the 5

Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)72-77

church became its most striking feature.

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SAINT JOHN BOSCO PARISH

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The church featured cross rib vaults in the ceiling, an influence that could be traced to Peter Luigi Nervi. The structure exemplified Nervi’s work with ribbed concrete construction and, in effect, demonstrated clearly that concrete for monumental public structures was aesthetically and economically valuable. The treatment of the ceiling in the Don Bosco church adhered to Nervi’s thrust in dealing with circular covers or roofs. Like Nervi, Zaragoza avoided rectilinear forms and replaced them with ribbed concrete vaults and ‘magnificently swooping curves’.

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Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)77-80

 NATIONAL OUR LADY OF MEDAL

SHRINE OF MIRACULOUS

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In contrast with the seemingly organic form in the exterior, the interior features a highly symmetric floor plan. In defined Zaragoza’s extraordinary gift to fuse architectural formalism with theology. The roof which can be linked to a dome, features spirals that gather in a vortex akin to what nature has equipped the nautilus. From this convergence rises the pylon, some 00 feet high, all in concrete and capped by a steel cross in the exterior. Of all the works of Zaragoza, the national shrine of our lady of the miraculous medal has preserved its original architecture and remains changed, save for minor maintenance.

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RENOVATION QUIAPO CHURCH

OF

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The renovation of Quiapo church was zaragoza’s tribute to his mentor, National Artist Juan Nakpil. In expanding the church, Zaragoza preserved as much as possible the colonial flavor of Nakpil’s design. He never touched the façade and also spared the altar area.

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Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)80-82 8 Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)82-88

He only reconfigured the nave. The expansion scheme followed the dismantling of the colonnades that demarcated the aisles from the main nave and the church’s boundary wall so that the expansion could include the the area up to the peripheral fences on both sides. Zaragoza gave generous space to the nave, just as he did in the santo domingo church he built half a century earlier. The devotees could only agree with his decision.

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CASINO ESPANYOL DE MANILA 9

One clubhouse that Zaragoza designed and built was the Casino Espanyol De Manila in 1951. The design of Zaragoza for the club house embodies Castilian Architecture with its sculptured arches, exquisite chandeliers and a spacious garden all finely manicured and monitored. The architecture complex is secular, but the mood it exudes is clerical.

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SM CARRIEDO

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His first foray in the shopping center circuit is represented in his work at the shoemart (sm) at the junction of rizal avenue and Carriedo. Got noticed for being one of the first stores in the heart of Manila to be built with glass walls to allow the 9

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shoppers an immediate view of the fully air-conditioned interior. Zaragoza amplified this friendly disposition by equipping the structure with the latest advances in architecture. 

VIRRA MALL

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It covers an expense of 35,680 square meters. Books have praised it for its architectural prowess, which at time of construction was considered futuristic design. virra mall is a fully air-conditioned shopping center and used glass as chief architectural material. The atrium is the focal point of the building with a height of 28.9 meters, length of 55 meters and width of 16 meters. To complement glass as an architectural material, four criss-crossing see through glass escalators with glass roof have been installed to enable the shoppers to see the sky. 

COMMERCIAL BANK AND TRUST COMPANY 12

The spirit of playfulness always informed his works. In the case of the CBCT, it was like a mushroom that grew out of a forest of vertical trees. To this date, the CBCT retains the distinction of

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Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)96-97 12

Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)98-99

being the only shaped building in escolta. At that time of its construction in the mid-sixties, the architectural fad at that time was to shield buildings from the direct heat of the sun. Thus, the craze was to install sun breakers, or louvers, to diffuse sunlight. 

MERALCO BUILDING 13

In designing the Grand Meralco Building in Ortigas Avenue in Pasig, Zaragoza made use of louver as a significant feature of the structure. From the horizontal shutters of the Philamlife sprouted the vertical shutters, practically running the entire height of the structure. Zaragoza was believed to have derived the inspiration for his building’s design from the fender of the cougar car fashionable during his time. To this date, no other structure in the country has duplicated the feat of a having a series of vertical blades in concrete, arranged in a concave manner, not only to shield the building from sunlight, and even rainwater, but to breathe subtlety and supremacy of form into the structure. Zaragoza designed and constructed the meralco building at the height of his architectural career. At this time he was ably helped by his wife, Pilar Rosello, in most of his architectural plan. The building is founded on adobe, ensuring its resilience to withstand any force majeure. For added stability, Zaragoza strategically placed the storage and utility areas to be at the building’s end to serve as buttresses.

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Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004)100-107

OTHER WORKS: -SEMINARIO COLLEGIO DELLE ISOLE FILIPPINE on VIA AURELTA in ROME, ITALY -EDIFICIO PEUGEOT in BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA -SAN BEDA HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING on MENDIOLA ST. -ALBERTUS MAGNUS SCIENCE BUILDING on the UST CAMPUS, ESPANYA ST. AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS        

was chosen president for 3 year term on the Philippine Institute of Architects (PIA) awarded by the American Institute of Architects as Honorary Fellow bestowed the PIA Fellowship Award holds a diploma in comprehensive planning from the Hilversum Technical Research Center in the Netherlands awarded as outstanding Bedan Alumnus of 1956 by the San Beda Alumni Association awarded the City of Manila Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award awarded the PIA Gold Medal of Merit ‘ receives the PIA Membership Emiritus

Reference: Ruben Defeo & Loudette Zaragoza- Banzon,Jose Maria Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man (ArtPostAsia Books,2004) http://www.artpostasia.com/zaragoza/zaragoza.html 

Pictures

http://nonstopbabble.blogspot.com/2012/05/remembering-virra-mall.html http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Meralco_Building http://tanawin.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/santo-domingo-church-in-quezon-avenue/ http://upto6only.com/2010/02/02/churches-and-weddings-series-st-john-bosco-parish-church/ http://www.ship-of-fools.com/mystery/2007/1438.html http://www.artpostasia.com/zaragoza/zaragoza.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiapo_Church