25 Tropical Houses of the Philippines features top Filipino architects and designers with ideas that are stylish, contemporary, and show twenty-first century savvy. The Philippines has long been known for creative designs and furniture and for the sill of its artisans in crafting modern products from traditional materials. This book takes a giant step forward--into the realm of modern architecture and interior design. Twenty-five stunning homes showcase the best of residential design by a number of outstanding Filipino architects and designers. It offers a tour of stunning structures ranging from gracious pavilion-houses in elite subdivisions of Manila to elegant vacation homes of Batangas and Mindoro. Blending the graceful proportions of Asian design forms with the rigorous discipline and modernization of Western architecture, the houses retain an affinity with natural materials--warm hardwoods, rustic stone and slate, earthy clay and tile--at the same time introducing innovative use of glass, concrete, steel, and aluminum. Water elements and lush tropical gardens complete the transition from traditional conventions to Asian architectural fusion and international modernist trends.