Recreation redefined

Bonifacio High Street is a kilometer-long, mixed-use development in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. Within this vibrant environment, Bonifacio High Street Central houses offices, retail outlets, and restaurants. These structures provide the backdrop to an 800-meter long, 40-meter-wide landscaped central spine around which the entire length of the development is organized, thus creating a pleasing harmony with the park setting and a well-defined sense of place. For this project, Aidea was tasked by one of the Philippines' leading developers with the design of a new kind of outdoor shopping experience for a metropolis with an excess of malls and precious few open green areas. Aidea rose to the design challenge in collaboration with Studio Taku Shimizu for C1, C2 and C3, and solely for Central Square and the C3 Annex.

Instead of orienting the six blocks that comprise the development toward the streets bordering the site to pander to passing motor traffic, these are instead turned inward to form a linear park, thus creating a hybrid space that is part public park, part shopping mall, and part urban promenade. The aim was to create a large green space as a visual paradigm of nature thriving within a rapidly changing metropolis. By orienting all shops this the green spine and taking cars out of the equation, users directly engage with the environment at their own pace. The architecture was designed to respond at the appropriate scale. Wide pedestrian walkways line both edges of the green area while above, deep overhangs are fixed to the shop facades to provide shelter from sun and rain.

Facts

Client: Ayala Land, Inc.
Location: Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Philippines
Size: 81,000 sqm
Typology: Retail
Services: Architecture
Year: 2014
In collaboration with Studio Taku Shimizu