Proud to be Pinoy
Travel Log Book Review MABUHAY MAGAZINE
May 2005
Jose Maria V. Zaragoza: Architecture for God, for Man
By: Ruben D.F. Defeo and Ma. Lourdes Zaragoza Banson.
Photographs by Erwin Obcemea
124 pages
Publisher: ARTPOSTASIA Inc. Makati, 2004.

The Meralco Building, Virra Mall, Shoe Mart, Santo Domingo Church, Quiapo Church. These landmark structures in Manila were designed by a man who lived frugally and simply, his tastes shaped by growing up in times of hardships and war.

This book is about Jose Maria Zaragoza and his designs, which fall under two distinct types - the ecclesiastic and the secular - within a career of 56 years. It begins by talking about the man on a personal level, and then continues by talking about the buildings in the same manner.

The construction of the Holy Rosary Church in Tala near the leprosarium, for example, paralleled the rise of a spirit of volunteerism in the man who became known as a ‘friend of the lepers.’ And for this work, Zaragoza received the Officers Cross of the order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on July 6, 1996. Meanwhile, the design of both Virra Mall and Meralco building established him as a futuristic thinker. Virra Mall is a mixture of steel and glass on the roofs for interior lighting, while Meralco building’s design of vertical blades arranged in a concave manner prevents it from overheating especially during summertime, and it has a segmental floor plan that avoids the rain effect of long corridors.

The book illustrates both the interior and exterior skeletons of Zaragoza’s buildings - from the stained glass windows of the Sto. Domingo Church to its coffered ceiling inspired by the cruciform; and from the construction plans of the Virra Mall to the view of the same building during sunset.

Ruben D.F. Defeo is the main author of this book, commissioned by Mrs. Ma Lourdes Zaragoza Banson (daughter of Jose Maria Zaragoza) who wrote both the introduction and the personal vignettes.