BALMORI 7F TENT GARDEN

Lead Designers Christine Sicangco & Jo Vincent T. Gonzaga (CSLDI Pincipals)

Entry Description

Right in the heart of the urban jungle of the Makati Central Business district in Manila and within the Balmori Suites (a luxury residential enclave), the 7th Floor is a multi-events place surrounded by a landscape for the entire Rockwell Powerplant Development.
Flanked on all sides by tall concrete buildings, this garden Floor becomes an oasis among the glass and steel buildings.
Despite the limited budget, the lighting design inside the tent was very flexible, accommodating the expected activities and events. The lighting blurred the indoor and outdoor spaces, extending the feel of the room as if in a large garden in the heart of the urban jungle that is Makati.
The Landscape Lighting used a majority of medium beam stake-mounted lights that were carefully and strategically installed to minimize and hide glare as much as possible. The light source was carefully hidden among the plants, and every light fixture was fitted with a hood, further reducing glare.
It was essential to blur the boundaries between the indoors and the outdoors using lighting. To be able to enjoy the outdoors especially when one is surrounded by greens in the middle of the tall concrete buildings while being inside an airconditioned tent, is such a luxury. To enjoy a tropical garden in the middle of the Central Business District at night, surrounded by tall buildings, is quite an experience.

Sustainability Approach

We have chosen to use stake-mounted LED landscape projectors for ease of maintenance and flexibility, mainly because it is easier to adjust the lighting as plants are moved in the nursery and grow. Low-level solar lighting with sensors glows as soon as the sun sets and automatically increases the light levels as soon as movement is perceived.