Bahanaaue
« A golden retreat for an enchanted night between sky and rice terraces »
Creating a sanctuary of conviviality where laughter and travellers’ tales mingle, embracing through architecture the site’s exceptional natural setting.
Designed for the Banaue Lodge competition organised by TERRAVIVA, the project sits at the heart of the legendary, UNESCO-listed rice terraces of the Philippines. The challenge was to imagine a sanctuary at a human scale, able to resonate with the timelessness of a landscape shaped over millennia where nature and people have worked together.
Inspired by vernacular typologies such as the Bahay Kubo, Bahanaaue proposes an architecture of balance: between the conviviality of a shared central courtyard and the introspection offered by panoramic rooms that seem to float above the void. The horizontal lines of the two wings follow the hypnotic rhythm of the topography, an effect reinforced by the palette of geo-sourced materials. At the centre of this restraint rises the Belvedere, a hyperboloid tower offering a 360-degree view. The true singularity of the project, this structure crystallises my approach as an architect-engineer: the meeting of rigorous mathematical geometry, bioclimatic design principles, and the immense structural plasticity of bamboo.
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Site plan of the complex
The site lies on the edge of a village nestled at the heart of the splendid Banaue terraces, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. To the west, an open view stretches over the terraces below, while to the east the stepped terraces rise as if climbing to the sky.
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Ground-floor plan
The project consists of two wings aligned with the irregular edges of the plot, following the line of the terraces while maximising views over the valley to the west. This arrangement creates an irregularly shaped central courtyard that distributes the private and shared spaces.
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First-floor plan
Only the east wing, built against the buttressing of the rice terraces behind, has an upper floor, reached via the belvedere stair. Upstairs the experience is more immersive: no longer enclosed spaces but open ones, with rows of hammocks for sleeping under the stars.
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Perspective section through the planted courtyard
This section shows how the wings sit on the site. The deep roof overhangs and the roof openings are passive bioclimatic devices. Inspired by Philippine vernacular forms such as the Bahay Kubo and the Bahay Na Bato, Bahanaaue seeks to foster both gathering and introspection. The panoramic rooms of the west wing seem to float above the void, offering breathtaking views, while the hammocks and the net on the upper floor allow a night of full sensory immersion, conducive to silence and contemplation.
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The project and its setting among the golden terraces of Banaue
At the heart of the project is the central courtyard, opening onto the shared kitchen seen in the foreground, with its long tables and welcoming armchairs. The aim is to make it a sanctuary of conviviality where laughter and travel stories mingle. To blend into the rice fields and the neighbouring village, Bahanaaue's architecture embraces the site's magnificent nature. Two wings enclose a planted courtyard. The slightly offset volumes optimise the views while shaping a sheltered interior space. The horizontal lines of the roof, the railings and the terraces answer the hypnotic rhythm of the rice paddies.
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View of the two wings from the north
This view shows the full palette of local materials used in the project. The aim was threefold: to limit the project's ecological footprint, to draw on local building know-how, and to encourage a harmonious fit with the site — both the terraces and the village. The materials used — cogon grass, narra and molave wood, bamboo, tuffeau stone — were carefully chosen to recall the textures and atmospheres of traditional Philippine architecture, giving the lodge a rooted yet elegantly modern identity in its pared-back, refined language.
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The central courtyard comes alive at nightfall
When evening comes, the site reveals all its magic — that of a starry night and of an architecture that shows itself differently, through lamps casting a warm, flickering light. Amid the restrained lines rises the Belvedere: a vertical, sculptural interruption offering a 360-degree view of the surrounding landscapes. This bamboo tower, around which a floating timber stair winds, is the project's geometric singularity and breaks the monotony of the inhabited wings.