conversion of Blanco Center Apartment Building
into High-End Boutique Serviced Residences
(in collaboration with Periquet Galicia, Inc.)
L. P. Leviste St.,
L. P. Leviste St.,
Salcedo Village, Makati City, Metro-Manila
The Picasso seen from Paseo de Roxas
The Picasso seen from Leviste Street
The role of art is to enable us to see ordinary things in new ways. Picasso the artist helped the world to see art, and the world, anew. Cubism, the movement he founded with Georges Braque, is the deconstruction of an object into various components, and re-assembling these components in a different way.
The idea of the façade is simple: take a simple image, divide it into equally-sized components, and reapply them to the balconies of this building. You do not see the image when you stand in front of the building. But in the course of several visits, as you walk up and down the street, you will see the various components of the image, divided over several balconies, come together as a complete picture, not so much with your eyes, but in your mind, rather like Cubism.
In the course of several visits to the construction site, the idea of the "found object" came to light. Picasso was not only the founder of Cubism but also one of the pioneers of the use of the "found object" in collage and in sculpture. The "found object" is literally that: an object chanced upon in the streets and trash heaps of Paris
In the Main Lobby, the demolition process revealed traces of outstanding visual interest: the jagged edge of a demolished floor slab here, the texture of formwork on the underside of a floor slab there, that eventually end up as key elements of the space. Ordinary things seen in new ways become extraordinary.
UPDATE: Article on The Picasso as seen in Feb/March 2010 issue of Garage Magazine.
Click here to access the official website of The Picasso
Click here to access the official website of The Picasso
