Traditional Houses in Philippines

The nipa hut, or bahay kubo, is a type of stilt house indigenous to the cultures of the Philippines. It is also known as payag or kamalig in other languages of the Philippines. It often serves as an icon of Philippine culture.

Lichauco Heritage House

The Lichauco Heritage House, formally known as the O'Brien-Lichauco Heritage House is one of the oldest surviving houses in Santa Ana, Manila, Philippines. Originally built in 1859, the house was purchased in the late 1940s by a prominent Filipino lawyer and dignitary, Marcial Lichauco from a European family who had fled the Japanese occupation in the Philippines. The house was declared as a heritage house by the National Historical Commission on July 10, 2010. The Lichauco Heritage house is located along Pedro Gil Street. It is the only declared Heritage House in Santa Ana, and one of the only two declared heritage houses in Metro Manila along with Mira-Nila House in Quezon City.

Mabini Shrine

The Mabini Shrine is a historic site in Santa Mesa, Manila, Philippines. It is the original house owned by the del Rosario family in Pandacan to whom Apolinario Mabini, known as "the Sublime Paralytic" and "the Brains of the Philippine Revolution", was related by affinity. On May 13, 1903, Mabini died of cholera at the age of 39 in this house. The shrine is now located within the main campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines in Santa Mesa, after several relocations. It is situated next to the newly-constructed Museo ni Apolinario Mabini (Apolinario Mabini Museum), where some of his belongings and memorabilia can be found. The Mabini Shrine is a government recognized National Shrine (Level 1) and cultural property based on the official lists provided by the National Commission on Culture and the Arts, National Historical Commission of the Philippines and the National Museum of the Philippines.

Bonifacio Trial House

The Roderico Reyes Ancestral House, more commonly known as the Bonifacio Trial House, is a historic house and museum in Maragondon, Cavite, Philippines. It was built in 1889 and served as a military court, wherein it has been a witness to the trial of Andres Bonifacio in 1897.

The plan for a new government was established since the emergence of the revolution in August 23, 1896. Its aim was to unite the Katipuneros under a single leadership. The Magdalo faction nominated Emilio Aguinaldo while Magdiwang faction retained Bonifacio, who was the "Supremo" of the Katipunan. On March 22, 1897, the revolutionary government was established at the Tejeros Convention. Emilio Aguinaldo was the president of the new government while Bonifacio was declared as the Minister of Interior. However, Daniel Tirona of Magdalo, questioned the Bonifacio's qualifications for the said position. Upon his authority as the presiding officer, he declared all the proceedings null and void.

Bonifacio, then, established his own government in Naic, Cavite. He was arrested for refusing the revolutionary government, upon the orders of Emilio Aguinaldo, at Indang, Cavite. His wife, Gregoria de Jesus, and his brother, Procopio, was also arrested. Andres Bonifacio was brought to a military court in Maragondon for a pre-trial hearing. On May 5, 1897, the brothers of Bonifacio were charged by the court with treason and sedition. On May 6, 1897, they were sentenced with death penalty.

His brothers were brought by Major Lazaro Macapagal to Mount Tala on May 10, 1897. As soon as they reached Hulog, a barrio within the vicinity of Mount Nagpatong, Major Makapagal opened his sealed orders, upon Bonifacio’s insistence. The order revealed that severe punishment awaits for him if he would fail to execute the two brothers of Andres Bonifacio. The death of the Father of the Revolution, Andres Bonifacio, still remains to be controversial at present.

Malacañang of the north

The Malacañang of the North (Ilocano: Malacañang ti Amianan) and (Filipino: Malakanyang sa Hilaga) is a presidential museum in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. It was the residence of the family of Ferdinand Marcos when he was the President of the Philippines.

The residence was built by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA; now the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority or TIEZA) in 1977 for Marcos's 60th birthday, and served as an official residence for the president's family when they were staying in Ilocos Norte.

It is a two-story mansion overlooking the Paoay Lake, and consists of seven (supposedly a lucky number for Marcos) rooms, with each room having a theme of historical events from the Marcos era: Study, Agriculture, Diplomacy, OFW (overseas Filipino workers), Culture, Nation Building and Family.

While being administered by TIEZA, Cecile Licad played a Frédéric Chopin program at the property in 2001.

Usage of the property was turned over by the former president Benigno Aquino III to the Ilocos Norte provincial government in 2010. Governor Imee Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos's daughter, then had the property refurbished to be one of the province's tourist attractions. Eric Zerrudo, of the University of Santo Tomas Center for Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics, was commissioned to put together the exhibits in every room, with each room centering on a theme of Marcos's public programs.

The Sandiganbayan anti-graft court stripped the Marcoses of the property in 2014, after it voided a 1978 agreement between Marcos and the then PTA, deciding that since it is a national park, Marcos had no legal rights over it since national parks are "inalienable public domain", despite claims by Bongbong Marcos, the son of the former president, that the property was owned by their family.

Casa Consulado

The Casa Consulado, also known as Iturralde Mansion or Iturralde House, is a heritage house located in Quiapo, Manila, Philippines. The house typifies the architectural style of Bandehadong Bahay na Bato that was common during the 1920s in the Philippines.

The house was constructed in the 1926 in a lot previously owned by Don Mariano Garchitorena following the Bandehado style of Bahay na Bato. In 1936 the house was acquired by the family of Don Jose Iturralde and his wife Doña Dominga Alvaro. Their son, Dr. Augusto Alvaro Iturralde, was appointed as Honorary Consul of the Principality of Monaco to the Philippines, and converted the house as his office and as the Consulate House of Monaco in the Philippines.

Clarin Ancestral House

The Clarin Ancestral House is the residence of the Clarin family, a prominent family of politicians from Loay, Bohol, Philippines. It is arguably the most visited of all ancestral houses in Bohol, along with the President Carlos P. Garcia Heritage House in Tagbilaran.

The Clarin Ancestral House was declared as a Heritage House by the National Historical Institute (NHI) pursuant to NHI Board Resolution 8 S. 1998. The 170-year-old house is now a museum housing family collections and memorabilia dating back to the American period.

Bahay na Pula

The Bahay na Pula (Tagalog for "Red House") is a former hacienda in San Ildefonso, Bulacan in the Philippines. It is the most important site for remembrance of the horrors committed by the Japanese against the hundreds of men who were murdered at the site and the hundreds of women who were forced into slavery as comfort women.

It was constructed in 1929 at Barangay Anyantam under the orders of Don Ramon Ilusorio of the Ilusorio family, who owned vast hacienda lands in the area. as a family mansion with two storeys. It was made largely out of wood and painted red on the outside, giving it its name. The house was surrounded by large gardens filled with tamarind, camachile, and duhat trees.

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, on November 23, 1944, the Geki Group of the 14th District Army under Japanese Imperial Army General Tomoyuki Yamashita attacked Mapaniqui, Pampanga. The town was suspected by the army to be a stronghold of the Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa Hapon or Hukbalahap. All men in the area were gathered, beaten up, and murdered afterwards in a genocide-like fashion. A verified report noted that one man had his genitals hacked off and was forced to eat them. The bodies of the men were all thrown into a huge pile and set on fire. No religious practices for the dead were allowed to be performed for the murdered men.

The Japanese Imperial Army afterwards looted numerous households in the area. In contrast, the women were brought into Bahay-na-Pula, which had been captured by the Japanese. The women, who numbered more than a hundred and came from the provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga, were told to bring items, and once they arrived, they were all raped routinely and repeatedly by an entire army of Japanese soldiers. Several of the girls were eight and nine years of age. Girls and women who fought back were stabbed to death using bayonets. Some of the women managed to escape, but many were forced into slavery and became sex slaves or "comfort women". Documented reports have showed various human rights violations. One account says that the Japanese army at Bahay-na-Pula had a "favorite slave", who was raped by different Japanese soldiers 30 or more times every single day. The woman was later murdered through drowning after she fought back.

Baldomero Aguinaldo Shrine

The Baldomero Aguinaldo Shrine is a single-detached house built by Gen. Baldomero Aguinaldo, cousin of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo during the American Colonial Period in 1906 at Binakayan, Kawit, Cavite. Baldomero held several positions at the revolutionary government during the early 1900s. He became the head of the Kawit Chapter of the Katipunan, President of the KKK Magdalo Council, and Secretary of the Treasury in the 1897 Biak-na-Bato Republic. Also, he became the Secretary of War and Public Works after the establishment of the First Philippine Republic by Emilio Aguinaldo.

The house of Gen. Baldomero Aguinaldo is a two-storey house with blue-green and white paint finish and simple decorative details. The lower ground floor or bodega which is intended to be partly closed serves as the working area. Stairs leads up to the living room, orsala, facing in front of the street. It is a well-ventilated space due to provision of three windows at each side. There are two sets of windows: the outer set made out of large glass panes while the inner set composed of fixed wooden blinds made out of Philippine hardwoods, molave and narra. Also, these windows have openings below its window sills, also called as ventanillas. Located between floor and the window sill, these openings provide additional inlet and outlet of air inside the second floor.

Aside from the living room, the second floor consists of two bedrooms, kitchen, and dining area, or comedor. A passageway, leading towards the bedrooms, or the zaguan, contains some of the memorabilia from Gen. Baldomero Aguinaldo, books of the municipal library, a history exhibit, and an arrangement of early to mid-20th century household items such as an upright piano. The bedrooms have iron bedsteads from the 1930s. The dining area, or comedor, could accommodate ten guests. It features pieces of furniture such as bentwood Thonet "Vienna" chairs, a dish rack, or vajillera, for china and glass wares, and a stuffed deer head on the wall. Built outside the comedor is a long outside shelf, or banguerra used for drying table ware. The flooring of the kitchen is made out of bamboo slats which is useful for both ventilation and easy cleaning. The bathroom and toilet are off a porch at the rear side of the house.

Rizal Shrine

The Rizal Shrine in Calamba (Filipino: Museo ni José Rizal Calamba) is a reproduction of the original two-story, Spanish-Colonial style house in Calamba, Laguna where José Rizal was born on June 19, 1861.[1] Rizal is regarded as one of the greatest national heroes of the Philippines.[2] The house is designated as a National Shrine (Level 1) by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. It is located along Mercado Street and Rizal Street in Calamba's Poblacion 5 and is in close proximity to St. John the Baptist Parish Church and the City College of Calamba.

Rizal's father, Francisco Rizal Mercado, took two years to build the original Rizal ancestral house. The Spanish authorities confiscated the house in 1891. Paciano Rizal, brother of José Rizal, reoccupied the house during the Philippine Revolution, but lost it again to the friars. It was subsequently sold, destroyed in World War II[3] and eventually demolished. The government bought what remained of the Rizal House for ₱ 24,000.

In 1949, President Elpidio Quirino passed Executive Order no.145, facilitating reconstruction of the house. Filipino school children provided most of the funding for the project while Juan F. Nakpil served as the supervising architect. Staying true to the original home, the reconstructed house occupies the same site and is built from the materials during the time the house was built.

On June 19, 1950, the newly built home was inaugurated and now serves as a repository for Rizal's memorabilia.

During the Centenary of the Philippine Independence in 1998, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in cooperation with the National Centennial Commission, decided that Rizal's Shrine should focus specifically on his childhood.

The house is intended to provide an accurate representation of the home Rizal grew up in until his formal schooling in Biñan (where Rizal was born.) Rizal's anecdotes often reference his childhood home, recounting the nipa hut in the garden where he learned to sleep and sculpt; the kitchen where he learned the alphabet; the bedroom where he learned to pray; the library where he discovered books and the azotea where he listened to his grandmother's stories of "skeletons, buried treasures and trees that bloomed with diamonds."

Bahay na Bato

Bahay na bato (Tagalog, literally "house of stone") is a type of building originating during the Philippines' Spanish Colonial period. It is an updated version of the traditional bahay kubo. Its design has evolved throughout the ages, but still maintains the bahay kubo's architectural basis which corresponds to the tropical climate, stormy season, and earthquake-prone environment of the whole archipelago of the Philippines and fuses it with the influence of Spanish colonizers and Chinese traders. Thus created was a hybrid of Austonesian, Spanish, and  Chinese architecture with American influence during the American era, supporting the fact that the Philippines is a result of these cultures mixing together. Its most common appearance is that of an elevated, overhanging wooden upper-story nipa hut (with balustrades, ventanillas, and capiz shell sliding windows) that stands on Spanish-style solid stone blocks or bricks and posts as foundation instead of just wood, bamboo stilts, or timber posts. Roofing is either Chinese tiled roof orthatch (nipa, sago palm, or cogon), of which many today are being replaced by galvanized or other modern roofing. It followed the bahay kubo's arrangements such as open ventilation and elevated apartments used as living space with the ground floor used for storerooms, cellars, and other business purposes. Likebahay kubo, much of this ground level was reserved for storage; in business districts, some spaces were rented to shops. Horses for carriages were housed in stables calledcaballerizas. Bahay na bato had a rectangular plan that reflected vernacular Austronesian Filipino traditional houses integrated with Spanish style.

It was popular among the elite or middle-class, and integrated the characteristics of the nipa hut with the style, culture and technology of Chinese and Spanish architecture. The 19th century was the golden age of these houses, when wealthy Filipinos built fine houses all over the archipelago.

The same architectural style was used for Philippines' Spanish-era convents, monasteries, schools, hotels, factories, and hospitals, and with some of the American-era Gabaldon school buildings, all with few adjustments.[3] This architecture is still used during the American colonization of the Philippines. After the Second World War, building these houses declined and eventually stopped in favor of post-World War II modern architecture.