On architecture, meditation and books

PEACE. Architect Ned Carlos takes design inspiration from buildings like the Agora Garden (Tao Zhu Yin Yuan building) in Taipei for its net-zero carbon features.
PEACE. Architect Ned Carlos takes design inspiration from buildings like the Agora Garden (Tao Zhu Yin Yuan building) in Taipei for its net-zero carbon features.

Prior to the lockdown, Dumaguete-based architect Ned Carlos and his family had the opportunity to travel twice a year and see iconic buildings designed by world-class architects.

His favorite so far is Taipei 101 where his family got to experience the skyscraper from the ground up. His children enjoyed drinking coffee from the highest Starbucks (35th floor), and Ned saw an actual structural damper (88th floor) that prevents the once world’s tallest building from tilting.

After a sluggish year of pandemic season, Ned has apparently returned to keeping himself full with architectural works. McNeloy’s La Cavitena was Ned’s first completed project in Dumaguete City. The restaurant’s modernistic interiors vetoed ideas of the province’s omnipresent Spanish design as derivative of European styles and focused on designs that complemented the current industrial materials.

Since then, the Dumaguete City architect has built a reputation for high-profile modern architecture in Negros Oriental and over the course of his 20-year career in the city, Ned has pioneered the development of a new modern style of Negrense architecture.

In his free time though, Ned loves to meditate and read books, and he sporadically helps his daughter Meya in writing articles for her school paper. Ned has relished reading timeless classics like Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” and Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.”

“Reading has a way of letting your imagination fly,” said the architect, “especially if you can’t travel but writing puts your imagination into practice.”

Speaking of family, Ned and his wife Menell are considered to be recognized architects in Dumaguete City and Guihulngan City (Menell’s hometown in Negros Oriental), but they favor to uphold a slightly private lifestyle. The couple have a 15-year-old son named Don, and some tip is for his son to become an architect just like his father.

Moreover, the Dumaguete architect has an enormous passion in painting, and perhaps he’ll unveil his own artistic career after dangling his drafting tools.

“I have always enjoyed painting since I was a kid and have adored the works of Van Gogh, Picasso and Amorsolo,” enlightened the architect. “If not for the dough, I would be a painter.”

Finally, the architect has beforehand emphasized the rank of meditation in his life as well as his career, trusting that it helps him in preserving his focus.

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