This transit-oriented development in Manila will demonstrate
sustainable urban form, the value of culture, put people at
its heart, and build resilience to climate change.

Hawkins\Brown was commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office to bring their expertise of masterplanning around rail infrastructure to the Philippines. Transit oriented developments are being promoted by the FCDO's Green Cities project to reduce carbon emissions and make best use of land in urban locations around the developing world.
Currently Manila is choked with polluting private vehicle traffic, with few significant public open green spaces, and an urban environment prone to flooding and earthquakes.
The project seizes the opportunity to demonstrate how to shift current local development models on a site which will be one of the most transit-connected parts of central Manila. The city also has few examples of historic buildings that have been repurposed for public use. The proposals include the repurposing of designated 'Important Cultural Properties' originally designed by National Artist Leandro Loksin. Adaptations to their structures will maximise their functionality and facilitate greater placemaking value. It will show that cultural and public facing elements, though not directly profit-driven, add financial and social value to the whole development and surrounding areas.
It will reserve the majority of the site as publicly accessible space, owned and managed by a public body for the benefit of the widest group of people across socio-economic boundaries. It will be designed to minimise ‘whole place’ carbon emissions in its urban form and architectural specification, as well as create an environmentally comfortable setting that builds resilience against climate events.

This project is a vivid demonstration of how London’s urban design thinking can be meaningfully transferred to global contexts. Under the management of Crossrail International we’ve designed a comprehensive development on a super-connected if not the most connected future site in Manila. In a traffic-clogged city with a dearth of public open space and lack of urban greening, our masterplan brings the best qualities of London city-making - richness, generosity, inclusivity and climate resilience, all within a commercially viable proposition that makes best use of publicly-owned land. Darryl Chen, Partner & Urban Design Lead, Hawkins\Brown.