Landscape Architect

✏️ In the late eighties, newbies (yours truly included) brought their own drafting tools that included a meter-long T-square, cannister, and yes, a handy toolbox filled with every necessary item to facilitate drawing exercises and esquisses (including technical pens, colored markers, metric scale, angled rulers, erasing shield, etc.).

It was a pre-AutoCAD era which means presentation tools that reflect excellent CGIs came decades later. Not having these tools of technology as we now know in this day and age of AI, students had to learn the basic and emerging techniques of manual drafting and rendering, a skill that would only be honed further after many years of professional training.

Mastery of these skills is most validated during licensure exams where everything was automatically executed by hand. Imagine for a moment the mounting pressure of having to translate a design problem into a comprehensive scaled landscape design using pens, markers and tracing paper placed in a 20 x 30 drafting board and work on detailed construction drawings all within a limited timeframe. And of course, the reward that comes after passing and finally being issued a professional license.

Looking back, it was worth all those trial-and-error experiences and designing landscapes gained thru long hours and many years of academic and professional training, manual revisions notwithstanding.

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A post released recently in its website states that “the Quezon City Government, through the QC Department of Building Official (DBO) and the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Department (CCESD), with the help of C40 Cities and the UK Government, has launched the Green Building Code (GBC) of 2025, which serves as a guide for designing and constructing buildings and houses in Quezon City.”

This new code, which supersedes the Building Code of 2009 “aims to reinforce the city’s green building regulations by establishing cost-efficient, climate-smart, and resilient structures. It also boosts the city’s environmental programs and helps mitigate the harmful effects of climate change by reducing carbon emissions.”

Further, “the QC Green Building Code of 2025 requires public and private buildings and infrastructure to be constructed, as well as those currently under construction or renovation, to be built and designed in accordance with the requirements and provisions of the adopted GBC and its Implementing Rules and Regulations.”

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➡️ SECTIONS of the Quezon City Green Building Code of 2025 (Ordinance No. SP-3439, S-2025) most relevant to landscape architecture in projects within Quezon City. (NOTE: Numbering follows structure of the ordinance and its technical provisions.)

📍Section on SITE SUSTAINABILITY

This section establishes environmental performance requirements of the site before building construction.

Key provisions :
• Protection of existing vegetation and natural features
• Minimizing disturbance of soil during construction
• Providing landscaped open spaces
• Implementing erosion and sediment control

✅ Landscape architects (or LAs) will be involved in :
• Site analysis and ecological planning
• Tree preservation plans
• Landscape master planning

📍Section on URBAN HEAT ISLAND REDUCTION

This section requires strategies to reduce surface temperatures in urban areas.

Requirements :
• Tree canopy coverage
• Vegetated open spaces
• Green roofs or roof gardens
• Use of high-reflectance paving or roofing materials

✅ LAs are involved in :
• Shade tree planning
• Plaza and courtyard landscape design
• Roof garden design

📍Section on STORMWATER MANAGEMENT :

This section focuses on reducing flooding and improving groundwater recharge.

Requirements :
• Stormwater detention or retention systems
• Rainwater harvesting
• Permeable surfaces
• Landscape-integrated drainage systems

✅ LAs are involved in :
• Rain gardens
• Bioswales
• Permeable paving layouts
• Vegetated drainage channels

📍Section on OPEN SPACE and LANDSCAPED AREAS

Developments must provide landscaped areas within the project site.

Key provisions :
• Allocation of open space with sufficient planting areas
• Use of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers
• Landscape elements for microclimate cooling

✅ LAs are involved in :
• Planting design
• Landscape development plans
• Planting schedules

📍Section on WATER EFFICIENCY

The code promotes efficient water use in buildings and landscapes.

Requirements :
• Rainwater harvesting systems
• Low-water landscaping
• Efficient irrigation systems
• Reuse of greywater for irrigation

✅ LAs are involved in :
• Drought-tolerant plant palettes
• Irrigation design
• Water-efficient landscape planning

📍Section on SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

This section addresses construction and operational waste.

Requirements :
• Waste segregation facilities
• Recycling provisions
• Construction waste management plan

✅ LAs are involved in :
• Integration of recycling areas in site design
• Composting areas for landscape maintenance

📍Section on COMPLIANCE and DOCUMENTATION

Projects applying for permits must submit documentation showing compliance.

Typical submissions :
• Green building compliance checklist
• Landscape development plan
• Stormwater management plan
• Open space computation

These documents are reviewed by the city’s Department of the Building Official and sustainability offices.

💡 Why these sections matter

For green building projects in Quezon City, landscape architects are directly involved in at least four core compliance categories:

✅ Site sustainability
✅ Stormwater management
✅ Urban heat island reduction
✅ Open space landscape planning

These are all essential for green building permit approval.

✏️Back in the late eighties, newbies brought (yours truly included) their own drafting tools that included a meter-long T-square, cannister, and yes a handy toolbox filled with every necessary item to facilitate drawing exercises and esquisses (including technical pens, colored markers, angled rulers, erasing shield, etc.).

It was an era where CAD was yet to be introduced and presentation tools that reflect excellent CGIs only came many, many decades after. Not having these tools of technology as we now know in this day and age of AI, students had to learn the basic and emerging techniques of manual drafting and rendering, a skill that would only be honed further after years of professional training.

Mastery of these skills is most validated during licensure exams where everything was automatically executed by hand. Imagine the mounting pressure of having to translate a design problem into a comprehensive landscape design using pens, markers and tracing paper placed in a 20 x 30 drafting board and work on detailed construction drawings all at a limited timeframe. And of course, the reward that comes after passing and finally being issued a hard-earned professional license.

Looking back, it was worth all those trial-and-error experiences of designing landscapes gained thru many years of professional training, manual revisions notwithstanding.

First Year in Architecture 🏛️✍🏻😎

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Here’s an interesting design approach in Denmark, where environments both natural and built are fused to create a form of landscape + architecture symbiosis, with the sun as a dynamic design element.

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✅Key takeaways from this article on “The 60 year Landscape Lease” posted by Landscape Architecture Magazine :

📍Landscapes are not meant to be seen as permanent possessions, but rather as temporal covenants between people and places.

📍Design in landscapes experiencing years of human use can be reimagined as a living covenant that has both purpose and bound by time.

📍Landscape architects are choreographers of transformation, treating landscapes as being in a constant state of movement.

A Road Map on Designing for Our Uncertain Ecological Future Achieving something close to permanence in their built designs was long the goal for landscape architects. But the lifespan of a landscape should no longer be viewed as eternal.

✅A very timely read on understanding the dynamics of AI vis-a-vis modern professional practice

How Benoy is Navigating the AI Shift in Modern Practice How Benoy is Navigating the AI Shift in Modern Practice - Benoy - landscape architecture -

The UP SDG Park and the path to building sustainable urban communities Is it possible to build and develop a sustainable urban community within Metro Manila? For the University of the Philippines, an answer lies in a 24-hectare lot deep within the heart of Diliman in Quezon City, where a model sustainable community is envisioned to rise. The Sustainable Development Goa...

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✏️ Back in college, our first design professor was someone who was not only inspiring but also supportive and yes, even maternal. To us young, wide-eyed, aspiring first years, she was Ma’am Espina— who was not only good at what she did but also extra generous in grading our design plates, much to our delight! Had other design professors after but thankfully, she became our thesis adviser in our final design class.

When we started our own practice, after a season of working for design firms, it was an eye-opening, learning experience. In a field mostly led (and most times dominated) by men, and women were either involved in marketing or relegated to administrative work, it was quite a challenge initially, especially during the implementation phase. Site work can be quite exhausting but nonetheless very rewarding, especially when the intended design are properly executed.

Now the playing field has become less daunting and more accommodating, with women professionals being recognized in their own merit and fields of expertise.

Hopefully, as professional practice becomes more equitable and enabling, innovation will start thriving, with collaborations being strengthened, and in the process talent begins to flourish.