[3][4][5] Although he was popularly known as the architect of the Coconut Palace,[6] his other notable works include the EDSA Shrine, the Mary Immaculate Parish (Nature's Church) in Las Piñas, the Davao Pearl Farm, and Amanpulo resorts.

Mañosa became known for combining these traditional forms and indigenous materials with modern building technology to create structures which he felt were those best suited to the Philippines' tropical climate.

[1] His parents were María Tronqued, one of the early actresses of Philippine Cinema, and Manuel Mañosa Sr., a Harvard-educated sanitary engineer who was director of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System from 1947 to 1955.

[1] Nicknamed "Bobby" in the American-inspired fashion of the era, he played jazz piano and initially wanted a career in music, but studied architecture at the University of Santo Tomas on the insistence of his father.

[8] His wife Denise, whom he married at around this time, recounts that this experience inspired Mañosa to pursue a design aesthetic with a similar consistency, reflective of Filipino culture.

Philippine architecture historian Gerard Lico[1] describes Mañosa's style, saying:"His approach to traditional design is based on the ability of the architect to identify the essential building elements and to translate them into a contemporary image.

He initiated a contemporary mode that uses and revitalizes the knowledge from previous generations, recovering age-old constructive methods and finishing materials, emphasizing their optical and thermal qualities.

[6] The project became controversial,[6] because the opulent design was paid for with government funds[1][6] and was soon cited as a prominent example of Marcos' Edifice Complex excesses.

[1][6] Although the controversy and the relative disuse of the building since its construction, the Coconut Palace has come to be recognized as one of the most prominent examples of Philippine neovernacular architecture,[1] and made Mañosa a highly-sought-after artist.

[1] After the Marcoses were sent into exile in 1986, Cardinal Jaime Sin of the Archdiocese of Manila began conceiving of a shrine that would celebrate the People Power Revolution which had deposed them.

[10][11] Cardinal Sin's appeal for people to rally in the streets had played a pivotal role in assuring that the uprising succeeded without the need for bloodshed, and Philippines' large Catholic majority characterized its success a "miracle.

Between 1971 and 1975, the Saint Joseph Parish Church, home of the Las Piñas Bamboo Organ, and the surrounding buildings were restored to their 19th-century state by Mañosa and partner Ludwig Alvarez, through the administration of Rev.