 | Palafox Associates, the Philippines’ leading international urban planning and architectural firm celebrated their 15th birthday on July 1st, with an open house, at their office in the Jaka building, in Makati for friends to view models and photographs of work they have done in 15 countries. Founder and principal architect Felino "Jun" Palafox, has worked all over the world and regularly goes back to Harvard to brush up on the latest thrusts in global architecture. He finished his last course this year with a fascinating projection of Manila 2020 expanding eastward through development corridors to the undeveloped Pacific coast.
A visionary, and a religious man, Jun Palafox recently told me about one of the most challenging assignment in his life. He has worked on the city planning in the Middle East but he has now been offered to rebuild the shattered school buildings in the city of Bam in Iran, which was flattened by an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale last December 26, 2003.
The mystical and exciting thing for Jun is that it was a Taiwan-based Buddhist charitable organization, Tzu Chi, that commissioned Palafox to rebuild the schools of Bam, Iran of course is Muslim, and Palafox is Catholic. He finds it especially inspiring to think, in this day and time with so much violence and ethnic hatred in the world that "A Filipino Catholic is building schools for Muslims, in the Middle East as a gift from a Buddhist organization in Asia."
While working out the terms of the project, Palafox, like a good Filipino, asked if his sponsors would consider working on any of the many projects that need to be funded in the Philippines. He was told they won’t touch any project that is "political". The Bam project is a gift of charity to a stricken country, with no political ties.
Iran, a country Palafox knows well, is rich in cultural and architectural heritage. Iranian architecture, he explains, is a blend of Islamic, Greco-Roman, Mediterranean, Egyptian, and Near Eastern styles which set it apart from the rest of the world.
The city of Bam, which was flattened by the December earthquake, is one of Iran’s famous historic cities, a crossroad for silk and spice traders between China and Europe. It was the commercial and trading center of the Silk Road and contained, among other oddities, the largest (240 square meter) mud, brick, straw, clay, citadel in the world, the Arg-e-Bam, constructed 2000 years ago.
After the earthquake hit Iran in December, 25,000 people were declared dead, and another 50,000 injured. Ninety percent of the buildings in Bam collapsed. Today the famous, centuries-old citadel is nothing but piles of crumbled brick and clay.
The Tzu Chi organization took on the city of Bam as its project, providing medication and supplies and helping in the reconstruction of schools. Palafox design for the eight public schools and a dispatch center fuses Oriental, Far East, and Persian architecture. The roof design, Oriental in character, symbolizes "hands in prayer", the ideals of Tzu Chi.
Jun Palafox feels honored and privileged to take part in this charitable endeavor for reconstructing what once was a great and historically rich city in the Middle East in this surprising demonstration of Buddhist, Muslim and Catholic cooperation.
Fatamieh Girl's Elementary School
Sadi Boy's High School
Najmieh Girl's High School
Nursery School
Parvin Etesami Girl's High School
Adab Boy' School |