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Luis Ma. Araneta
The Makati Medical Center was designed by Luis Ma. Araneta, one of the most prominent post-War Filipino architects.
The hospital structure, like all the other buildings he designed, was distinctive in its elegance. The structure was meant to be uncluttered, with every line complementing the whole without strain or incongruity.
While Araneta was passionate about bringing about something new and different in every project, he took great care not to drift into the outlandish, and most of his designs were meant to be harmonious through careful massing and detailing.
Understanding that healing was more than medication and therapy, but a process that involves all the senses, he designed Makati Med accordingly.
Healing, he knew, was all about creating a harmony of body and spirit. Consequently, he moved the interior design away from the standard hospital design at that time—which was design in stereotypical white to make the spaces look sterile and aseptic. Instead, he worked with legendary Filipina beauty and socialite Elvira Manahan to convey a warm sense of wellbeing in the hospital’s rooms, hallways and the facilities. Together they selected colorful fabrics and wall paper, warm tones of paint color, and the right furnishing and materials to create spaces for healing. All this was part of the Makati Med vision as a premier hospital.
In its first years, the Makati Med building—a horizontal band punctuated by a circular form with the slender and decorative vertical of a stairwell between them—stood out like a piece of sculpture against the vast space of then suburban, sparsely populated Makati.
A distinctive architectural feature of the building, also designed by Araneta, was the floating restaurant attached to the circular wing of the building, which seemed to be “floating” because it was propped up by cantilevered steel beams.
Araneta had designed the Makati Med building because of his close friendships with the hospital’s founding physicians. He had also previously designed the Manila Doctors Hospital, where the same group of doctors had practiced. He went on to become a member of the Makati Med board.
Born on July 9, 1916, Araneta was the son of the late Gregorio Araneta, the first Filipino Secretary of Finance and Justice and Carmen Zaragoza.
He completed his architectural studies at the University of Sto. Tomas in 1939, but his career was interrupted by outbreak of World War II. When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, he served in the underground movement and was even imprisoned at Fort Santiago in 1943.
Mr. Araneta had been president, vice-president and member of the board of directors of several business enterprises. Socially, he was associated with several cultural and educational institutions.
He is also known for his extraordinary Filipiniana collection of beautiful and rare paintings and carvings, and for his stamp and coin collection.
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