As an Engineering and Architectural Design student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, I have come to understand that the built environment is the embodiment of how a community understands itself and its place in the world. Every culture interprets space differently: in the West, we are trained to design with abundance, with materials and technology at our fingertips. Yet in indigenous communities, design begins not with excess but with limits.
This summer, I propose to travel to Benguet, in the Cordillera highlands of the northern Philippines, home to the indigenous Igorot people. As a second-year MEng Engineering and Architectural Design student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, what draws me here is the ingenuity of bamboo as a complete architectural civilisation endemic to this landscape. My research investigates how bamboo functions simultaneously as a structural system, cultural medium, and climate-responsive environmental tool, and most importantly, how the passive principles embedded within Filipino vernacular architecture directly respond to contemporary challenges surrounding hygiene, drainage, overheating, and healthcare resilience in isolated mountain communities. These objectives align strongly with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 13 (Climate Action). Rather than imposing external architectural systems onto vulnerable communities, I am interested in understanding how indigenous construction knowledge has already developed highly sustainable responses to climate, geography, and resource scarcity over centuries.
To ensure the placement itself remains as sustainable as possible, I intend to approach travel sustainably by maximising the duration and impact of the placement relative to the environmental cost of international flights, prioritising low-consumption living practices, using local transportation where possible, reducing material waste during construction, and working directly with locally sourced materials rather than imported systems. I am particularly interested in developing low-impact greywater filtration prototypes combining bamboo, local aggregates, and recycled polymer 3D-printed joints, connectors, and filter housings designed for precision, repairability, and long-term accessibility. These hybrid systems would operate as closed-loop cycles, reducing water consumption and limiting groundwater contamination while remaining economically and materially accessible to local construction practices.
For me, sustainable travel is not simply about minimising environmental impact, but ensuring that movement between places creates meaningful exchange, long-term responsibility, and tangible environmental value. Through this placement, I hope to deepen my understanding of climate-responsive indigenous design while contributing towards forms of architecture and engineering that are environmentally regenerative, culturally respectful, and socially equitable.
