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

Revaluation of Space

The act of revaluation necessitates the assessment and recalculation of the value of something and assigns a higher value than before. In this sense, Muhon 10 delves into the revaluation of the spaces we inhabit that necessitates the reexamination of the material and technical dimensions of the built environment, the reassessment of heritage places, conservation methodology and urban resilience, the reconsideration of the meaning systems and experiential aspect of places and spaces, and the review of institutional knowledge transmission through formal education and corpus of architectural works.

Copyright © 2023

Idealizing Architecture

About the Cover:

The cover for the latest issue of the Muhon Journal features the central sculptural group at the pediment of the National Museum's Main Building along Burgos Avenue, Manila. The enthroned sculptural trio is the personification of the Philippine nation, Luzviminda, represented by Luzon at the center, Visayas on the right,
and Mindanao on the left.

Emulating archaic royalty, Luzon wears a diadem and holds a scepter of power, and is accompanied by two
seated consorts, a male Mindanao and female Visayas, on both sides. The male figure is clad in tribal attire and
holds a spear, while the female figure is dressed in a dressed-down, Hispanized baro’t saya sans the panuelo and
tapis.

The sculptural trio is an allegory for the Filipino nation, constituted by three diverse and culturally distinct
island clusters. Similarly, the Muhon Journal encourages the diversity and plurality of architectural knowledge
production across the archipelago and we are delighted to present it through this issue—from history and
criticism, green spaces, urbanism, and material experimentation with local materials.

Copyright © 2022

Urban Reset