You know it’s a Pinoy home if…

MOST Filipino contemporary houses are patterned after western style homes, at times, to the point of impracticality. Often, our real needs are ignored just so that the house is “nasa uso,” making the homeowner “in.”

Specific countries have their own idiosyncrasies or style and their traditional structures generally address their needs. In Japan for example, the “Ryokan,” a typical Japanese house, has some features unique to the Japanese: a place to remove and store shoes, rooms covered in “tatami” mats, minimal low-to-the-ground furniture and other features that can be quite strange to westerners.

Similarly, in Batanes, our very own Ivatan houses have almost no furniture inside, enabling multiple uses for the main areas: for dining and entertaining during the day and for sleeping at night. Again, the indigenous houses of the Ifugaos are just as flexible, as well as the houses on stilts of the Badjaos. But as Madonna says in the words of her popular song, we are living in this material world; and so, all the must-haves of the idealized western home fill up our domestic wish list.
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