Lor Calma & Partners recently won the 2022 Outstanding Property Award London (OPAL) for its architectural design of the Miriam College Alviera (MC Alviera) campus, a first for the top Filipino architectural firm.
OPAL, an annual global property award based in London, celebrates and honors outstanding projects ‘addressing creativity, innovation, and sustainability’ in three disciplines: interior design, architectural design, and property development.
“The awards for me is an opportunity for design in the Philippines to be visible to the whole world,” said Ar. Ed Calma, Lor Calma & Partners design principal, architect, and interior designer. “Winning these international awards confirm we are doing something relevant and we contribute to the culture of architecture worldwide,” he added. Alongside MC Alviera, his design of the Davao Civic Center also won for the same award.
The 2022 OPAL winners were chosen among 600 shortlisted entries from all over the world by an esteemed jury comprised of leading property industry professionals “What made it interesting is that one of the jury members is Ben Van Berkel, a great architect whose work I admire,” said Ar. Calma, referring to the renowned Dutch architect who designed Rotterdam’s iconic Erasmus bridge.
According to Ar. Calma, judges often look at how a design responds to the site and the environment. For the 10-hectare MC Alviera campus, he worked with the property’s unique topography comprised of undulating terrain and a naturally-landscaped gorge. His building design morphs into the topography and avoided altering the existing microclimate by preserving the flora of the gorge. “The academic project guides people in and out – resembling a mountain path, following a natural rhythm,” the OPAL website described his design.
With collaboration as a key learning component for MC Alviera, Ar. Calma incorporated open areas that overlap in multiple levels so that ‘learning beyond the classroom’ can happen whether through interaction, exhibits, or dialogue within these spaces. “We introduced spaces that allow students to engage with each other outside the classroom and in between buildings and landscape,” said Ar. Calma. The same OPAL website description observed how the design allows students, teachers, staff and visitors to move around “the learning and interaction spines that create a quadrant organization of education: learning, creativity, recreation, and social interaction.”
MC College Alviera is poised to be the ‘home of the creative class’ when opens its doors to co-ed students in August 2023, starting with the higher education unit. Its campus design is purposefully aligned with the creative and entrepreneurial courses it will offer as well as with its goal of providing a global education for its students.
The Porac campus is Ar. Calma’s second project with Miriam College. In 2016, he also designed the Miriam College-Henry Sy, Sr. Innovation Center located at the Loyola campus.
Visit the website at mc.edu.ph/alviera.
