Bahay na bato

Báhay na bató (Filipino for "stone house"), also known in Visayan languages as baláy na bató or balay nga bato, and in Spanish language as Casa de Filipina is a type of building originating during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. It is an updated version of the traditional bahay kubo of the Christianized lowlanders, known for its use of masonry in its construction. It uses stone and brick materials, and later synthetic concrete, rather than just organic materials of the former style. Its design has evolved, but still maintains the bahay kubo's architectural principle, which is adapted to the tropical climate, stormy season, and earthquake-prone environment of the whole archipelago of the Philippines. It fuses bahay kubo's architecture with the influence of Spanish colonizers. It is one of the many architecture styles throughout the Spanish Empire known as Arquitectura mestiza. The style is a hybrid of Austronesian and Spanish architecture; and later, with early 20th-century American architecture, supporting the fact that the Philippines is a result of these cultures mixing. Its most common appearance features an elevated, overhanging, wooden upper story (with balustrades, ventanillas, and capiz-shell sliding windows) standing on wooden posts supported by a rectangular foundation. The posts are placed behind Spanish-style solid stone blocks or bricks, giving the impression of a first floor. The ground level contains storage rooms, cellars, shops, or other business-related functions. The second floor contains the living areas as it is with the bahay kubo. The roof materials are either Spanish-style curving clay tiles (teja de curva) or thatched with leaves (like nipa, sago palm, or cogon). Later 19th-century designs feature galvanization. Roof designs are traditionally high pitched and include gable, hip, or a traditional combination of both (similar to the East Asian hip-and-gable roof). Horses for carriages are housed in stables called caballerizas.
It was popular among the elite or middle-class and the 19th century was the high point of these houses’ construction, when wealthy Filipinos built them all over the archipelago.
The same architectural style was used for Spanish-era convents, monasteries, schools, hotels, factories, and hospitals, with some of the American-era Gabaldon school buildings, all with few adjustments. This style was still used during the American colonization of the Philippines. After the Second World War, construction of these buildings declined and eventually stopped in favor of post-World War II modern architecture.
Today, these houses are more commonly called ancestral houses, due to most ancestral homes in the Philippines being of bahay na bato architecture.
Though the Filipino term bahay na bato means "house of stone", these houses are not entirely made up of stone; some are dominated by wooden materials, while some more modern ones use concrete, in contrast to the organic materials that make up the bahay kubo. The name bahay na bato was applied to the architecture over generations.
Bahay na bato were also referred to as arquitectura mestiza ("mixed architecture") by the Jesuit priest Ignacio Alzina in 1668 due to it being composed of both wood and stone.
Precolonial Philippine architecture is based on traditional stilt houses of the Austronesian people of Southeast Asia. The first buildings during the early years of Spanish occupation were Bahay kubo which are made of wood and bamboo materials. It is a type of construction with which the pre-Hispanic indigenous Filipinos had been working expertly since early times and is known as Austronesian architecture. Bahay kubo roofs were made of nipa palm or cogon grass. In its most basic form, the house consisted of four walls enclosing one or more rooms, with the whole structure raised above ground on stilts.
When Spaniards arrived, they quickly introduced Spanish architecture of building a more permanent construction traditions which they inherited from the Romans. They thus began building communities with the church and government as focal points. By the mid-1580s, through the efforts of Domingo Salazar, the first bishop of Manila, and of the Jesuit Antonio Sedeño, edifices began to be constructed of stone. Fr. Sedeño built the first stone building, which was the residence of Bishop Salazar.
By 1587, Governor General Santiago de Vera required all buildings in Manila to be built of stone. For this purpose, the indigenous Filipinos were taught how to quarry and dress stone, prepare and use mortar, and mould bricks. Thus began what has been called the first golden age of building in stone. This new community setup made construction heavier and more permanent materials desirable. Some of these materials included bricks, mortar, tiles, and stone. Heavily favored accounts of towering palaces and splendid mansions reached the peninsula. However, the ambitious plans of the Spaniards were dashed in 1645 when a terrible earthquake struck Manila.
The twin dangers of fire and earthquake gave rise to another type of architecture. Finding European construction styles impractical in local conditions, Spanish and Filipino builders quickly adapted the characteristics of the bahay kubo of the natives and applied it to Spanish Colonial architecture. This type of construction was soon called bahay na bato. It was also called arquitectura mestiza ("mixed architecture") by the Jesuit priest Ignacio Alzina due to it being composed of both wood and stone. Under more than three centuries of Spanish initiative, buildings of wood, stone, and brick were constructed all over the archipelago, from the Batanes Islands in the north to Tawi-Tawi in the south, from Palawan in the west to Samar in the east.
During World War II, the American and Japanese forces destroyed many of these houses.
Different styles depend on each house's individual appearance. For example, some bahay na bato do not have ventanillas, some do not have Capiz windows, and some lack both. Some have galvanized, tiled, nipa, or cogon roofs. Ground-level walls may be made of bricks, adobe, coral, or wood, although modern structures typically use concrete. While retaining the basic form, the 19th-century bahay na bato reflected changing tastes by incorporating motifs from other prevalent styles.
Houses such as the Vega Ancestral House that have emerging stone works at the bottom part of the house but have almost wooden materials appearance even to the first level walls are still considered bahay na bato; the name bahay na bato was applied to this architecture over generations, as most of these houses use stone materials, contrary to the precolonial era that used little to no stones at all. The same principle applies to the nipa hut: not all nipa huts use nipa materials; some use cogon.
Though many houses are built in a standard design, many houses are also mixed, arranged, patterned and/or coated with a variety of designs from different architectural styles and cultures connected to the Philippines. This is including Chinese, Romanesque and Classical styles among others. These houses could have an unprecedented mixing and matching of architectural styles, such as having Neogothic and Neo-Mudéjar or Moorish Revival details in the same corners – that is, on top of Baroque. Although retaining its basic form, the 19th-century bahay na bato reflected changing tastes through the incorporation of motifs from prevalent styles such as Victorian, Renaissance Revival and Neoclassical decorations which included columns, pilasters, caryatids, atlases and friezes adopted from Greco-Roman architecture, the civilizations from which Spanish culture descend. Classical traditions in these houses also appear in Beaux-Arts later in history. The dawn of Art Nouveau also greatly influenced the mixing of styles and aesthetics of these houses. Many later bahay na bato buildings adapted design styles,such as Art Deco during the latter era of American rule, and even through the postwar period of loose restoration. The mixing of so many different architectural styles give the bahay na bato a distinct look that is reflective of the Philippines' unified cultures and society.
The style of bahay na bato may also vary by area. Each region evolved its own building style, which was in many cases dependent on the materials available. As construction techniques were developed, quarries opened, and kilns constructed, various parts of the country began to show a preference for specific building materials. As a result, bahay na bato have several variations along ethnic lines. The bahay na bato in Cebu, for example, differs from the one in Ilocos and so on.
Manila, the capital of the Philippines, has some of the most diverse styles and materials of bahay na bato, ranging from the early period of Spanish colonization to the American era. Many were destroyed by World War II. The Metro Manila area still has one of the largest concentrations of bahay na bato houses. Most buildings in Manila and Central Luzon were of adobe, a volcanic tuff quarried from the hills, which is entirely different from materials of the same name found in Latin America (adobe in those Hispanic countries refers to mud and straw formed into rectangular blocks which are then dried in the sun).
In Manila, the largest, fanciest, and most prestigious companies eventually established themselves along the Escolta; by the second half of the 19th century it was the most important commercial district in the country. The opening of Manila as a free port encouraged British people, Germans, French people, and other foreigners to set up businesses on the Escolta and adjacent streets, causing many majestic bahay na bato buildings to be built.
Northern Luzon has some of the best preserved bahay na bato in the Philippines. The unique style of the north, commonly in the Ilocos Region, usually bases its design on brick materials. This material is commonly used in bahay na bato buildings, houses, churches, walls, monuments and fortification of the region.
Brick was the essential building material in northern Luzon; houses and churches of brick were also built in scattered areas of the archipelago, all the way down to Jolo, Sulu. Unique designs of the north may include having the façade walls of the second level made up of stone material in many buildings, rather than the more common wooden second level façade popular in the rest of the country. However, buildings built in this style in the region remain faithful to the nipa hut principle. These non-wooden (stone), second level façade walls styles are also present in some of the bahay na bato of other regions besides the north, like the 1730 Jesuit house of Cebu in Visayas. The wooden second level façade in bahay na bato are still present in the north.
In Vigan, the capital of Ilocos Sur, many homeowners built both stories in brick, which was available in large quantities. With the massive walls, the volada (an overhanging balcony) disappeared in many residences, and the kitchen became an extension in stone, with vents piercing the walls to let out smoke.
Calabarzon has some of the most thoroughly preserved heritage houses, built mostly using adobe stones. Towns along the coasts of Luzon, especially in Batangas, used roughly hewn blocks of coral and adobe stone.
The bahay na bato in Bulacan and many in Central Luzon are famous for their carvings. The most notable ones are in the Malolos, in its heritage core, where ancestral houses are located. Since adobe lends itself to sculpture, houses in Bulacan had façades decorated with carved flowers, leaves, and religious symbols.
Many constructions in the Bicol peninsula took advantage of the abundant volcanic stone from nearby volcanoes. One characteristic of houses in Bicol is that ground-floor overhangs are common, considering the region's rainy climate and decorations tend to be minimal for these houses. Larger towns in Bicol boast many bahay na bato homes.
Most bahay na bato in Visayas use coral stone, though many are still adobe and bricks. Cebu, Bohol, Negros, and Iloilo are famous for their bahay na bato houses. Throughout the Visayas, the craft of cutting coral stones was virtually elevated into a fine art, with blocks fitting so precisely into each other that not even a razor blade could be inserted between them. The material was so durable that it did not have to be protected with a layer of paletada. Aside from bahay na bato, Visayan noble settlements are also dominated by mansion-type payag (bahay kubo), which are built like bahay na bato but use wooden walls instead of stone walls covering the bottom floor. These arts were brought by the Visayan settlers to the coastal towns of Mindanao.
The Ivatan people of Batanes have a very different style of bahay na bato. As the islands of Batanes were absorbed by the colonial Philippines much later through Spanish conquest, their bahay na bato developed much later as well. Structures combined the pre-colonial Ivatan-style (presumably the jin-jin) and colonial Filipino-style bahay na bato, particularly the northern style from Ilocos and Cagayan, but with the use of thick limestone blocks instead of the bricks traditionally used in the northern mainland. In addition, structures incorporated practical methods suitable to their unique environment prone to destructive typhoons. Their variant styles include the common sinadumparan, which is similar to the mainland bahay na bato, having storage areas below and living quarters above. However, the storage floor is partially underground, acting as a basement, and the first floor serves as living quarters, appearing as a one-story house. The rakuh style, however, upholds the mainland tradition of having the first floor as storage and the second floor as living quarters, appearing as a two-storey house. The mainland bahay na bato influence is very much clear in the rakuh building.
Many convents, monasteries, schools, hospitals, offices, stations, etc. also adapted the bahay kubo architecture to the Spanish colonial style. As a result, many of these buildings end up being bahay na bato as well.
Examples of such buildings include the University of Santo Tomas (Intramuros), Colegio de Santa Rosa Manila campus, San Juan de Dios Educational Foundation, Tutuban station, AMOSUP hospital, Hotel de Oriente in Binondo, Malacañang Palace, and many other church convents which are still standing today.
Examples:
The Intramuros Register of Styles is the main architectural code of Intramuros, the historic core of the City of Manila, Philippines. The Register of Styles prescribes the Bahay na Bato as the default style for new constructions in Intramuros.
The Register became part of Presidential Decree No. 1616, as amended, when it was gazetted by the Official Gazette of the Philippines on June 17, 2022. The Intramuros Administration is the agency of the Philippine Government responsible for the implementation of the Register of Styles.
Intramuros in Manila is the only locality in the Philippines where, for cultural reasons, the use, height, scale, and aesthetics of all new constructions and development are pre-determined and strictly regulated under the force of national law. The Register of Styles, as an integral part of Presidential Decree No. 1616, is the main legal document prescribing and guiding the implementation of pre-war architectural colonial styles in Intramuros.
The Register of Styles is the first document to detail the historical styles of Intramuros. It was authored by Rancho Arcilla, who was then the Archivist of the Intramural Administration, and under the initiative of Guiller Asido, the former Administrator of Intramuros.
By form, the urban landscape of Intramuros mostly lacked setbacks, with buildings that were mostly terraced (rowhouses). Courtyards or backyards were exceptionally well adapted to the climate. The Intramuros style was described as both vernacular and cosmopolitan. While its Church and State buildings were European in orientation, albeit adapted and localized, most of the buildings were enclaved within its walls and embraced tropical vernacular constructions as exemplified by the Bahay na Bato. Churches, fortifications, and palaces fashioned in European styles, though few, became icons and objects of popular imagination. In contrast, the vernacular Bahay na Bato, which was adopted in majority of buildings, prevailed in terms of number of constructions. Except in certain instances, the Register of Styles prescribes tha\e Bahay na bato as the default style for new constructions in Intramuros.
As with any vernacular architecture, different features of bahay na bato vary from building to building, and houses may have or lack certain elements from the following list: