The Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan Campus Ministries heads the Mindanao Week of Peace celebration with Kristohanong Katilingban sa Pagpakabana (KKP) with a Walk for Peace on Thursday, November 26, 2015. Assembly time will be 5:30AM at the De Lara Park at the Misamis Oriental Capitol Gardens and ending up at Kiosko Kagawasan.
A Sarimanok lends local color to the Torogan 3D interactive Puzzle Exhibit at Centrio Mall
Meantime, XU Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Campus Ministries Office is partnering with Switotwins Inc in bringing an Interactive Exhibit to Cagayan de Oro as part of the Mindanao-wide, week-long celebration of the Mindanao Week of Peace.
The exhibit which will feature Okir-making workshops, a Speed Puzzle Building Challenge and much more will run from November 25 to December 2, 2015 at the Peace Park of the XU downtown campus.
Dubbed Balay-Balay Ta! (Let’s Play House), the interactive exhibit completed the third leg of its Mindanao swing at the C.M. Recto entrance of Centrio Mall where shoppers enjoyed putting together its three-dimensional architectural puzzles featuring the Meranao Torogan.
Shoppers enjoying themselves putting together the Torogan 3D Architectural Puzzle at Centrio Mall
“Educating people about pre-colonial and indigenous Filipino architecture should start with the young. This sows the seeds of nationalism in the very hearts of our country’s youth, some of whom will become the future Filipino leaders of design,” said Maria Lovella P. Naces, Switotwins Inc project coordinator. “We are inviting media to a press conference at the Xavier University, Campus Ministry board room at 2:00pm and for our opening celebration at 3:00 pm on November 25, 2015.”
“Our contribution to this journey is introducing pre-colonial and indigenous Filipino architecture to the Filipino youth and other ages through the BALAY-BALAY 3D Architecture Puzzles,” she added.
A joint undertaking of Davao City-based social enterprise Swito Designs and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the exhibit features five wooden prototypes of the 3D architectural puzzle featuring the Meranao’s ancestral and communal house known as the torogan.
An authentic Torogan in Lanao del Sur
Balay-Balay Ta was previously exhibited in Davao’s Abreeza Mall, followed by another stint at Mindanao State University at Marawi City last October 13-17, before proceeding to Capitol University’s Museum of Three Cultures on December 7-11, 2015.
“By putting together the puzzle, people can personally interact with the torogan which is first-person experience that will more likely leave a lasting impression on the assembler than any classroom or more passive means of learning can hope to achieve,” relates Gloryrose Dy, head architect of the project who came up with the concept. “It’s not only for children but also for grownups, and we have seen how both parents and children bonded putting it together.”
“Even as an architecture student, I only had vague ideas about pre-colonial/indigenous Filipino architecture,” she recalls. “All we learned about was the bahay kubo during our high school and elementary days.
Dy came up with the idea while still a freshman architecture student at the University of the Philippines-Mindanao.
CDO artists Nonoy Estarte and Nick Aca try their hand at putting together the Torogan 3D Artchitecture Puzzle
“With the Balay-Balay 3D Architectural Puzzles, I hope Filipino children would know more of their local and traditional architecture and be proud of their Filipino heritage,” she added.
However, the final product was a team effort started by Dy with fellow architecture student Henna Dazo and artist and toy designer Kim Vale who came up with the prototype.
Dazo’s thesis on the Meranao torogan spawned Vale’s blueprint which also drew further inspiration from the studies of the late MSU Professor and Meranao Scholar Dr. Abdullah T. Madale. The design was further refined and executed by Davao artisan and woodworker Felix Banlota who hand-carved the prototypes.
Through the series of exhibits in Mindanao, the team hopes to gather enough feedback and critiques to polish the design for its eventual commercial release planned for the first quarter of 2016.
For further information, visit: https://www.facebook/Balaybalay3D, or email balaybalay3d@gmail.com or contact Maria Lovella P. Naces, Switotwins Inc Project Coordinator (mlpnaces@gmail.com) , Mona Lisa D. Pangan. mpangan@xu.edu.ph or Ma. Rhea Gretchen A. Abuso, mabuso@xu.edu.ph
-30-