CASE STUDY

(LOCAL)

CENTURY CITY

Figure 1 Complete buildings in Century City

Century City is a 3.4-hectare (8.4-acre) mixed-use development in Makati City,

Philippines developed by Century Properties. It is a groundbreaking architectural and design

landmark, a fully-master planned vertical village where several of the Philippines’ tallest

buildings, namely the Gramercy Residences, Knightsbridge Residences, and Trump Tower as

well as the 17,000-square-metre (180,000 sq ft) Century City Mall are located. This also houses

the Milano Residences (interior design by Versace Home), and Trump Tower. In addition to

luxury high-rises, it will also feature corporate office towers, a state-of-the-art medical facility

(Centuria Medical Makati), and a world-class retail complex (Century City Mall). The

development sits on the former site of International School Manila. It was purchased in 2006 by

a consortium composed of Century Properties Inc. and Picar Holdings. Construction of the

development began in 2007.

OBSERVATIONS

While Century City is located near the Makati Central

Business District, it seems like its location is less ideal especially

for such a promising development. First, the traffic jam along the

Kalayaan Avenue especially during peak hours is extreme. It is very

hard to ride a jeepney going out of the area. Most jeepneys are full

because it is situated in the middle of the route. Second, while it is

true that it has already become a landmark in the locality, one can

only appreciate it afar. It is more beautiful at night because each Figure 2 View of the buildings
from inside the City

building is accentuated by lights that further enhances the

beautiful lines and shapes in the design. The buildings are so tall,

but there is no green space inside the so called “city” itself. A

green/open space at the center of the city could have made the

ambiance lighter. The surrounding buildings make the landmark

interesting, but it would have been appreciated even more if it

does not feel too intimidating. Third, there are very limited
Figure 3 View from a nearby place
activities to do in Century City. (Photo by: Wahico de Leon)

Unlike other similar developments that offer a wide range of activities to visitors,

Century City has very limited public space. Century City Mall and the commercial complex near

the entrance are the only places with public access. Lastly, the visitors may not feel the “sense of

belongingness” in the area. It is a place where you go and not want to stay for long if you have

no clear agenda in mind. The place does not feel welcoming and does not have much to offer

aside from the visual aesthetics.

MILANO RESIDENCES

The Milano Residences is a residential high rise condominium in Makati, Philippines. As

of 2017, it is the 17th-tallest building in the Philippines. It is the first of several buildings built at

the new Century City complex along Kalayaan Avenue by the Century City Development

Corporation. Designed by the award-winning master planning architectural firm Broadway

Malyan, The Milano Residences rises a towering 52 storeys. Dramatic lighting further

accentuates the Milano’s design as every floor becomes your very own veritable observation

deck looking out into the Makati skyline.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE RESIDENCES

The Knightsbridge Residences is a high-end residential skyscraper constructed

in Makati, Philippines. It is the second of several building projects built in Century City. It is one

of the Philippines' tallest buildings. The Knightsbridge Residences at Century City takes its name

after the most expensive neighborhood in London, Knightsbridge. The building introduces the

Lantern concept, unique architectural featuring stacked special residential units with dramatic

floor-to-ceiling windows that create iconic, sparkling glass boxes. This will be a distinguishing

feature which can easily be seen around the city, especially at night. The building will have a

maximum of 20 units per floor, each with a floor to ceiling clearance of 2.7 meters, and will have

300 parking slots available in 4 basement floors.

CENTURIA MEDICAL MAKATI

Centuria Medical Makati is a one‐stop, outpatient medical-IT facility located at the heart

of Century City, Makati, Philippines, which will house more than 700 clinics.

As a techno‐medical institution, Centuria Medical Makati aims to provide an efficient

clinic environment for doctors and equally, hassle‐free patient‐centered services to all guests. All

these, plus a modern carefully designed interior space, contribute to the unique and holistic

healing experience within the building.

CENTURY SPIRE

The Century Spire is a 60-story tall mixed-used skyscraper under construction designed

by Daniel Libeskind. The interior design was done by Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio

of Giorgio Armani. The glass-clad tower is divided into three branches with varying heights.

Between the two highest tower shafts is a diagonal glass structure was placed by Libeskind

which includes penthouses. The lower third floors of the tower are for office use and the upper

floors are residential. Underground parking will also be present and two floors of the building are

also allotted for amenities for residents.

GRAMERCY RESIDENCES

The Gramercy Residences is the Philippines'

first fully-furnished, fully-serviced, hyper-

amenitized and fully-technologized

condominium. Developed by Century

Properties and based on a design

collaboration between top Filipino

architectural firm Roger Villarosa Architects

& Associates and Jerde Partnership, it rises a

magnificent 71 stories into the sky. The main

attraction of the building is its Skypark.

Located on the 36th floor, it has three-

storey waterfalls, multi-level infinity edge

pools, lagoon pools, a designer restaurant,

health club, café, spa, a garden island within

a reflecting pool, and a cantilevering walkway — a pathway suspended in mid-air with infinity

pools on one side and a glass handrail on the outside. The Skypark traverses the entire width of

the building.
CENTURY CITY MALL

Century City Mall is the five level retail anchor for the Century City complex. It is a

boutique mall and lifestyle center which has 17,000 square meters of leasable space for around

100 tenants. It is anchored by Rustan's Supermarket and a four-screen digital cinema.

Heat is minimized by the architectural design of the mall. The exterior of the Century

City Mall was painted white to minimize the heat absorbed by the walls and roof and

the Exterior Insulation Finishing System is used as the facade material to minimize absorption of

heat by the mall's units, which in turn reduces energy needed by the air conditioning. For the

glass works, tinted horizontal glass sheets were installed to reflect sunlight and minimize the heat

entering the building as part of the designer's efforts to improve comfort to people inside the

mall. On the mall's roof garden situated on the fourth floor, natural ventilation and vegetation

were installed to reduce temperature and filter the air inside the building. Through a series of sky

lights, Natural light that passes inside the mall are filtered through all levels. In order to

minimize water consumption, waterless urinals are installed inside the mall's restrooms.
 CASE STUDY

(LOCAL)

ROCKWELL CENTER

Rockwell Center is a high-end mixed-use area known as a “City within a city” and is

located at Poblacion, Makati, Metro Manila. It is a 15.5-hectare lot which was previously

occupied by a Thermal Plant owned by the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company.

Today’s Rockwell was developed in 1998 two years after the closure of the power plant and is

being expanded since 2012. It is a project under Rockwell Land Corporation owned by the Lopez

Holdings Corporation.
VICINITY

The 15.5-hectare lot is bounded by J.P. Rizal Avenue (North) where it faces the Pasig

river, Estrella Street (East), Rockwell Drive and Amapola Street (South), and R. Palma Street

(West).

ARCHITECT

The architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American

architectural, urban planning, ang engineering firm formed in Chicago in 1963 was the one

responsible for the design of the place under the direction of Larry Oltmanns, their former design

partner.

DISTRICTS

Districts are relatively large city areas with common characters which observers can

mentally go inside of. The physical characteristics that determine districts are thematic

continuities which may consist of an endless variety of components: texture, space, form, detail,

symbol and so on. These components are imaged and recognized in a characteristic cluster in

order to establish a striking contrast. Besides, a certain reinforcement of clues is needed to

produce a strong image of an entire district.

Rockwell is categorized as a Commercial/Mixed Use according to the Land Use Map of

Makati City.
The sub-districts include:

Business District

College Campus

Residential District

Exclusive Area

Commercial District

(Please refer to the image on the next page)

NODES

Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which

are the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling. They may be primarily junctions or

concentrations. It also offers the observer multiple perspectives of the other core elements.

There are many junctions and intersections all throughout the Rockwell. It makes every

building accessible to pedestrians and motorists. Rockwell is composed of office buildings,

hotels and condominiums. The Powerplant Mall was strategically placed at the center of the

Rockwell vicinity to balance leisure, work and urban living.

Figure 3 Intersection between Lopez Drive and Hidalgo
Drive

Figure 4 Waterfront Drive Street View

Figure 5 Amorsolo Drive intersecting Museum,
Waterfront and Plaza Drive

One of the primary means of transportation in

Rockwell is jeepney, which stops in front of the

Waterfront Drive.

There is also an open green space across

PHINMA Corporation and Nestle which can be used to

access the Powerplant Mall.

Figure 5 Mini Park beside Powerplant Mall

 CASE STUDY

(INTERNATIONAL)

CENTRAL EMBASSY - BANGKOK, THAILAND

Built on the former gardens of the British Embassy and situated on the intersection of

Wireless and Ploen Chit, this has become an architectural landmark in the Bangkok skyline. The

1.5 million sq ft mixed use project merges a seven storey luxury retail podium and a 27 storey

five star Park Hyatt hotel tower into a cohesive, architectural entity. The tower is the first to be

completed by a British architect in Thailand.

 The hotel and shopping mall are bound together using the notion of a continual looped

form to give a more intuitive merging between plinth and tower and between the programs. The

continuity of the tower line appears to break down the volume of the mass of the plinth, creating

a structure that is asymmetrical in all dimensions.

The openness of the form embraces the city and sets up reciprocal views, with a series of

terraces outside and balconies within to see and be seen. The elevated form that rises from the

podium wraps around two vertical light wells, opening up internal spaces to reveal stepped

terraces, and dividing hotel functions: private guest-related programs face the gardens of Nai

Lert Park, while the hotel bar, reception lounge and sky terrace face the city center.
 Uniting traditional craftsmanship with digital design technologies, the design of the

facade builds on Thailand’s tradition of intricate pattern making. The exterior is clad in 300,000

aluminum tiles, each with two surfaces to reflect both the chaos of the city and the sky itself.

Creating a dynamic pattern in response to external conditions, the distribution of tiles creates a

moiré-like effect, articulated by the play of light and reflection along the varying profiles.
 CASE STUDY

(INTERNATIONAL)

MARINA CITY – CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Marina City, designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg and constructed between 1960 and

1967, is an icon of Chicago architecture and urban planning that breaks all the typical rules of

high-rise architecture. This is the first of its kind to layer residential, commercial, and

entertainment uses into a dense high rise complex in the center city, was the most ambitious and

forward-thinking post-war urban renewal project in Chicago in an era defined by ambitious

urban renewal projects. Marina City was the first planned development project in Chicago, and

the first and largest federally-insured downtown housing project in the country. When they were

completed in 1963, the residential towers were the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the

world. Goldberg thoroughly believed that people wanted to live in downtown Chicago. His

approach to Marina City was to design a “city within a city” that could fully accommodate

people’s everyday needs and activities just a short distance from their homes. It was a method of
bringing suburban commodities and ease of access to an urban setting. Each tower incorporates a

spiral parking garage on the first nineteen floors. It is one of the first non-enclosed parking

garages ever incorporated into the design of a residential high-rise. The 20th floor of each tower

serves as unit storage and laundry services for the residents. The remaining forty stories of each

building offer approximately 450 units; offering a total of 900 units categorized by studio, one

bedroom, and two bedroom units.

ARCHITECTURE

The Marina City complex consists of five interconnected but distinct components—two

identical 60-story cylindrical residential towers, a saddle-shaped theater, and a 10-story

commercial building, all of which are set on a four-story base with a marina fronting onto the

river. With the exception of the theater, which was built with a steel truss structure and covered

completely with lead shingles, all of the structures in the complex are cast-in-place reinforced

concrete construction.

RESIDENTIAL TOWERS

The residential towers, with their distinctive shape and rhythmic pattern of curved

concrete balconies, are the most iconic elements of the complex. When completed, Marina City’s

apartment towers were the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world and the tallest

apartment buildings in the world. The west tower sits at the southwest corner of the lot, and the

east tower is set slightly back along the eastern edge of the lot near State Street. This staggered

placement maximized views of the river and the lake. The base of each tower consists of a

sweeping helical parking ramp, which occupies the first 19 floors. The twentieth floor, which

separates the parking and apartments (both architecturally and functionally) features floor-to-
ceiling windows that clearly show the building’s central core, and houses laundry and storage

facilities.

OFFICE BUILDING

The north end of the lot is occupied by a ten-story concrete and glass office building

(now used as a hotel), constructed between 1962 and 1964, that rises high above the upper plaza

level on concrete groin vaults supported by slender columns and extends east-west along the

entire width of the complex. Beneath the office tower, a horizontal two-story block with a

recessed glazed first floor and a monolith un-fenestrated second floor connect the office tower to

the street and the site’s continuous commercial platform.

THEATER BUILDING

The theater building, located between the west residential tower and the office building,

comprises the fourth major component of Marina City and is perhaps the most visually unusual

element of the complex. It was also the last structure to be constructed (completed in 1967The

theater building as constructed is a large saddle-shaped structure with a glazed lobby below. Two

wing-shaped concrete side walls connected by a system of steel trusses support the concrete shell

roof, which rises to 114 feet on the east side and 74 feet on the west side. The entire surface of

the structure is comprised of curved or rounded forms, and the roof and walls (with the exception

of the three glazed walls of the lobby) are covered in lead panels, which were installed to deaden

the sound of rain, hail, and street-traffic. A rounded cast concrete eave line highlights the

sweeping shape of the roof.

COMMERCIAL FLATFORM

Surrounding and connecting the residential towers, office building, and theater is Marina

City’s multi-level commercial platform, which covers the entire site. The one-story rectangular

block houses restaurants and retail and commercial spaces along the main corridor, in addition to

all of the mechanical systems. Above this level is an open plaza. The original open, sunken ice

skating rink at the southeast corner of the plaza was replaced in the 1990s by a one-story

structure housing a restaurant. Below the commercial platform is the boat marina that gave

Marina City its name. Boats dock between the narrow piers that support the platform above. To

take advantage of the river views, the entire south wall of the platform is glazed.

VIEWS

Due to the circular form of the building, each unit has different views of the city. To the

south, the towers overlook the main branch of the Chicago River with a commanding view of the

Chicago Loop beyond it. To the west, the towers offer views of the division of the Chicago River

between its north and south branches, the Merchandise Mart, the Willis Tower, and the vast
westward expanse of the city. To the north, the towers face Chicago's River North, Old Town,

and Gold Coast neighborhoods and the northern neighborhoods of Chicago as they extend

toward Evanston. To the east the Towers afford a view of the eastern terminus of the Chicago

River, Lake Michigan, Navy Pier, and Grant Park.

Many of these views will be obstructed due to new construction in the immediate future.

After more than 40 years of unimpeded north and northwest views, in spring 2006 construction

began on vacant lots immediately northwest of the towers at the intersection of North Dearborn

and West Kinzie Streets for separate projects, including a mid-rise hotel and a high-rise office

building, which will partially obscure views from Marina City in these directions. Also in 2006,

site preparation began on a high-rise office building west of Marina City at North LaSalle Street

and the Chicago River which, when completed, will eliminate the unimpeded view of the

western horizon from Marina City's uppermost floors and roof decks.