Seeing Walls: A Study of Separation and Connection in Manila
| dc.contributor | Haber-Thomson, Lisa | |
| dc.contributor | Wu, Lan | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Darling, Naomi | |
| dc.contributor.author | Heller, Micah | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-06-04T14:28:31Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-06-04T14:28:31Z | |
| dc.date.gradyear | 2025 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-06-04 | |
| dc.description.abstract | A careful reading of the form and materiality of colonial infrastructure in Manila exposes the extent and limitations of the colonial dominated archive. Seeing Walls reveals a history of material resistance against the walls that divide the city through informal architectural additions throughout the city. Given the strategic location of the archipelago that make up the Philippines, Manila provides a site in which walls – understood broadly as both divisive and connective - are part of the landscape. For example, the ocean offered a protective wall to early inhabitants but, with the development of boat technology, that same water became temporarily habitable and permeable. The oceanic wall thus enabled extensive trade routes that connected the Pacific Islands and China. Since then, architectural walls have been built as part of colonial projects and, likewise, have been subverted through transient and perishable interventions. As examples, the Intramuros fortification was built during the Spanish colonial rule to separate Spanish and native Filipinos. But, woven throughout, Sari Sari shops and food carts inhabit this colonial infrastructure. These small moments of deliberate “misuse” complicate our understanding of the planned use of the city fabric. The simple act of providing people shade and respite from the tropical weather are evidence of colonial refusal. These documented examples of resistance expand the archive and recontextualize historical images. My thesis considers the rich history that produced precedents of resistance and proposes a design strategy that deconstructs and transforms the Postigo de La Nuestra Señora De Soledad, a small hidden gate in the Intramuros fortification. By partially obscuring and inhabiting this section of the fortification, using bamboo scaffolding of coastal villages and textile boat sails in juxtaposition with the stone wall, my aim is to circumvent the reproduction of colonial ideology in architecture. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Architectural Studies | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10166/6751 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.rights.restricted | public | |
| dc.subject | colonization | |
| dc.subject | post-colonial | |
| dc.subject | Philippines | |
| dc.subject | Architecture | |
| dc.title | Seeing Walls: A Study of Separation and Connection in Manila | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| mhc.degree | Undergraduate | |
| mhc.institution | Mount Holyoke College |