Bahay na bato

Báhay na bató (Filipino for "stone house"), also known in Visayan languages as baláy na bató or balay nga bato, and in Spanish language as Casa de Filipina is a type of building originating during the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines.

Its design has evolved, but still maintains the bahay kubo's architectural principle, which is adapted to the tropical climate, stormy season, and earthquake-prone environment of the whole archipelago of the Philippines.

The roof materials are either Spanish-style curving clay tiles (teja de curva)[1] or thatched with leaves (like nipa, sago palm, or cogon).

It was popular among the elite or middle-class and the 19th century was the high point of these houses’ construction, when wealthy Filipinos built them all over the archipelago.

[2] Precolonial Philippine architecture is based on traditional stilt houses of the Austronesian people of Southeast Asia.

It is a type of construction with which the pre-Hispanic indigenous Filipinos had been working expertly since early times and is known as Austronesian architecture.

[citation needed] When Spaniards arrived, they quickly introduced Spanish architecture of building a more permanent construction traditions which they inherited from the Romans.

By the mid-1580s, through the efforts of Domingo Salazar, the first bishop of Manila, and of the Jesuit Antonio Sedeño, edifices began to be constructed of stone.

[2] Under more than three centuries of Spanish initiative, buildings of wood, stone, and brick were constructed all over the archipelago, from the Batanes Islands in the north to Tawi-Tawi in the south, from Palawan in the west to Samar in the east.

Ground-level walls may be made of bricks, adobe, coral, or wood, although modern structures typically use concrete.

While retaining the basic form, the 19th-century bahay na bato reflected changing tastes by incorporating motifs from other prevalent styles.

These houses could have an unprecedented mixing and matching of architectural styles, such as having Neogothic and Neo-Mudéjar or Moorish Revival details in the same corners – that is, on top of Baroque.

[3] Although retaining its basic form, the 19th-century bahay na bato reflected changing tastes through the incorporation of motifs from prevalent styles such as Victorian, Renaissance Revival and Neoclassical decorations which included columns, pilasters, caryatids, atlases and friezes adopted from Greco-Roman architecture, the civilizations from which Spanish culture descend.

Many later bahay na bato buildings adapted design styles,such as Art Deco during the latter era of American rule, and even through the postwar period of loose restoration.

[2] The mixing of so many different architectural styles give the bahay na bato a distinct look that is reflective of the Philippines' unified cultures and society.

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, has some of the most diverse styles and materials of bahay na bato, ranging from the early period of Spanish colonization to the American era.

In Manila, the largest, fanciest, and most prestigious companies eventually established themselves along the Escolta; by the second half of the 19th century it was the most important commercial district in the country.

This material is commonly used in bahay na bato buildings, houses, churches, walls, monuments and fortification of the region.

These non-wooden (stone), second level façade walls styles are also present in some of the bahay na bato of other regions besides the north, like the 1730 Jesuit house of Cebu in Visayas.

[citation needed] Towns along the coasts of Luzon, especially in Batangas, used roughly hewn blocks of coral and adobe stone.

[2] Since adobe lends itself to sculpture, houses in Bulacan had façades decorated with carved flowers, leaves, and religious symbols.

[2] Throughout the Visayas, the craft of cutting coral stones was virtually elevated into a fine art, with blocks fitting so precisely into each other that not even a razor blade could be inserted between them.

Their variant styles include the common sinadumparan, which is similar to the mainland bahay na bato, having storage areas below and living quarters above.

Intramuros in Manila is the only locality in the Philippines where, for cultural reasons, the use, height, scale, and aesthetics of all new constructions and development are pre-determined and strictly regulated under the force of national law.

In contrast, the vernacular Bahay na Bato, which was adopted in majority of buildings, prevailed in terms of number of constructions.