Current Issue
Issue Number 11
Rooted Futures: Reimagining the Designed Environment through Local Ecologies, Cultural Memory, and Situated Pedagogies
About the Cover
The cover image is a vista taken at the new esplanade development in Pasig River that juxtaposes high-rise structures, a bridge, and a sculpture. The tall residential towers in the background evoke the vertical expansion typical of modern urban centers across Southeast Asia. These high-rises suggest the ongoing tension between global urbanization and local architectural identities. Their presence in the image hints at the consequences of rapid development—displacement of memory, erasure of place, and ecological disconnect. They stand as a critique of the unsituated architecture that this issue of MUHON aims to challenge.
The modern bridge — with its bold, arching lines and engineered precision — serves as a literal and metaphorical pedagogical structure. It symbolizes connectivity across divides: between past and future, tradition and modernity, nature and city. As "situated pedagogy" is a key concept in this issue, the bridge invites us to think of architecture as a mode of learning rooted in the local terrain and community experience. The foreground sculpture — organic, almost anthropomorphic in form — becomes the heart of this composition. Its fluid, bronze contours invoke local materiality and embodied memory. It suggests nurturing, protection, or ancestral embrace—fitting for a journal interrogating the continuity of cultural heritage in built forms. Set near water, it anchors the conversation in ecological sensitivity, acknowledging how tropical environments are shaped by climate, water, and time.
Copyright © 2025
Published:
2025-05-27
