Nearly two decades before the earthquake that struck Bohol and Cebu in 2013, the need for a kind of instruction book on how to take care of structures built during the Spanish colonial period was already felt badly.
At first, heritage advocates, architects and engineers alike were told that the technology behind these structures was long lost to the present, that it was now impossible to find information as to how those edifices—churches and convents and a sprinkling of ancestral houses— were built. We were told that they were made of limestone or coral stone blocks that were cut to size as well as coral rubble that were mixed with lime mortar and sand with some unknown binder. It was obvious too that hardwood timber species were used in tandem with these stones. But beyond that little else was known. The finer details behind such structures, their truss work, their roofing patterns and even how the walls were held together without the use of reinforcing bars remained a mystery.
Last Tuesday, the curtain of ignorance concerning the architecture and the technology behind these colonial era structures was finally rent asunder, as it were, with the launch of the book “Illustrated Manual for the Repair and Maintenance of Spanish Period Structures in the Philippines”. This 260-page book, published by USC Press, is the work of Melva Rodriguez-Java, the well-known heritage architect and founding dean of the USC College of Architecture and Fine Arts. Together with her in this project is a German engineer and planner, Dr. Raimund Becker-Ritterspach. Both had surveyed churches, convents and watchtowers of note in Bohol and Cebu together with architecture students to come up with detailed illustrations of specific structures, from floor to ceiling and roof as well as how to address their daily upkeep.
Even before the 2013 earthquake, Melva, as she is known to friends, had already been documenting such structures as part of the work of the Conservation and Heritage Research Institute and Workshops (CHERISH), a research arm of CAFA for over a decade already. (CAFA was renamed the School of Architecture, Fine Arts and Design or SAFAD in 2015, following changes at the University of San Carlos in preparation for the new educational reforms sweeping the country). Becker-Ritterspach, who has worked on heritage and conservation issues as an engineer and planner both in Germany and other countries, joined her later through the Senior Experten Service, a German foundation that sends experts to places where their knowledge is needed.
As head of the publisher of this book, I must beg for your forgiveness if my bias shows. But I most certainly hope that owners and caretakers of heritage structures take note of this seminal work designed for the non-expert. The blurb at the back of the book states this most succinctly: “This manual contains the most essential maintenance and repair instructions for the day-to-day upkeep of Spanish-period coral stone and timber religious structures, many of which are found in Cebu and Bohol. Armed with this manual, a custodian of such a structure can initiate the proper care and maintenance for heritage structures while preserving their religious and cultural significance.”
(To obtain copies of the book, kindly call USC Press at Tel. (032) 2300 100 loc. 290, ask for Tina Bernil. You may also drop by the museums shops of the Archdiocesan Museum of Cebu, USC Museum and Casa Gorordo Museum by next week when distribution of the book shall have been completed. A series of trainings for church custodians, mainly parish priests and officials of the Parish Pastoral Councils, will be carried out soon in tandem with the book. Those outside Cebu may order copies by emailing [email protected] or [email protected]).
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