ENGR. AGUSTIN CANCIO

A man of vision, he paved the way for the inception of the Philippine School of Interior Design. He was a trailblazer in the Philippine furniture industry and Cancio-Calma was a byword in the generations of yore.

He graduated with degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering from the University of the Philippines. He had a great love of machinery and imported woodworking machines for mass producing furniture to complement the hand skills of Filipino craftsmen.

He reached a pinnacle in the latter part of the 60s. With the Philippine economy growing, countless edifices and offices were built. He saw a need to help organize industry in the timely delivery of volume furniture while preserving the quality that the Philippines was known for.

In 1966, he became one of the founders and the first president of the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP). A venue for sharing ideas and growing the industry, CFIP celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016.

He perceived interior design as complementing furniture design. He was also deeply influenced by the Bauhaus Movement based in Europe and felt a need to help contribute to the pool of Filipino interior designers who could appreciate modern Philippine design. He envisioned a school to train new designers and consequently, the Philippine School of Interior Design was established in 1967.

He was an avid traveler with a thirst for knowledge. Tasked by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to help modernize the woodworking skills for Philippine furniture, he traveled around Europe and Japan. To keep abreast, he constantly attended trade shows and exhibits in Germany and Italy among other countries. The Cancio furniture legacy continues with his sons Gerry and Mark in Metro Manila and Cebu, respectively. They have served as major suppliers to luxury hotels, resorts, restaurants, residences and businesses.

ROSARIO CANCIO-YUJUICO

The president of the Philippine School of Interior Design looks to this 50th year as a milestone and recognizes that the School, indeed, has come a long way since its beginnings in the mid ‘60s. She is the eldest daughter of Engr. Agustin and Imelda Cancio, who were the founders of Philippine School of Interior Design, together with Mrs. Herminia Cancio- Layug, Lor Calma and Edith L Oliveros.

She attended the Ateneo Law School and has been the hands-on administrator of the Philippine School of Interior Design since the early 80s to the present. She says,” It helps to be a practical and grounded person in the midst of creative personalities. We balance each other out.”

She is grateful to her forerunners who hatched the idea of systematizing through formal instruction the then new field of interior design. Initially, they observed that the number of the young socialites interested in interior design was increasing steadily. Today, the Philippine School of Interior Design houses an eclectic mix of high school graduates and learners returning to school to study interior design after having pursued their bachelor’s degrees from other institutions and other career tracks. She helms the ship as the Philippine School of Interior Design-Ahlen Institute braves the waters of higher education and is set to graduate the first batch of BS Interior Design graduates in 2017.

MRS. HERMINA CANCIO-LAYUG

Sophisticated and elegant is how most people would describe her. Herminia received part of her education in British Hongkong and went on to pursue Home Economics in college. Her interest and knack for art and design led her to set up an interior design/furniture showroom and the Philippine School of Interior Design with her brother, where she was able to hone her creative palette while being exposed to the design luminaries of her day.

Design was in her DNA and this artistic creativity spans three generations. Her son, Budji Layug, is a renowned artist/designer, a visionary whose works project his total design philosophy. Her daughter, Leila Nachtigall, is a remarkable branding and graphic design guru, and daughter, Jo Loignon, is a painter and printmaker. Jo’s daughter Jasmine Loignon, is a creative director working and living in Paris.

Her daughter Jo remembers her as a refined, cultured, sensitive and loving person, a doer who got things done. Her son-in law considers her as very cosmopolitan in outlook. Her son Budji says she was a steadfast, gracious and loving mother…“She loved life and lived it to the fullest.”

EDITH L. OLIVEROS

Edith L. Oliveros, in the late 1960s was a US-educated Interior Designer having obtained her masters degree in Interior Design at Drexel Institute in Philadelphia. Upon arriving back in the Philippines, she got employed at Cancio-Calma Furniture. Perhaps, this was where serendipity played a valuable part in the beginnings of PSID. Indeed, it was a fortunate and pleasant surprise that young socialites from the elite families found a great interest in interior design and it was through Ms. Oliveros’ passion for her craft that she was able to spread the influence around. It was during her stay with the company, that an increasing number of young socialites had expressed their interest in the interior design practice, also the same young socialites had consistently tagged along with her when she made her rounds of project site visits.

Thus, the company commissioned Ms. Edith Oliveros to design a certificate course program specifically for the formal study of Interior Design. She is one of the founders of Philippine School of Interior Design. She was assigned to be responsible in designing its curriculum. She was one of the Interior Designers who promoted Filipino Design in each of her project assignments. She was given the Award as Outstanding Professional of the Year for Interior Design (1994) by the Professional Regulatory Commission. Among her notable projects are the interiors of Admiral Hotel and restoration of the Metropolitan Theater Manila in 1978.

With her accomplishments, Edith Oliveros remains an inspiration to Interior Design Educators and practitioners in the country while being rooted in the traditions and culture. There may be more highlights and stories big and small to tell about the prime mover of the PSID, but it can be quietly reflected on how she magically infused the Filipino character in every design detail that she worked on, and how, even as she was simply dressed, she exuded the warmth and distinct aura of the Filipino woman through the details and accessories she wore.

Ms. Edith L. Oliveros, being the inspirational teacher of PSID lives and breathes the very essence of a modern design role model through her thinking, her actions and her teachings. She inspires because she can bring about a transformative way in which her students think and act. Her greatness has crossed boundaries of age and time.

LOR CALMA

One of the Members of the Board of Advisers when the PSID was founded. He obtained his degree in Architecture in 1954 from the Mapua institute of Technology. He has focused more on sculpture, furniture and interior design.

There is no shortage of powerful adjectives that can describe Calma — “Modernist architect, groundbreaking interior designer, sharp furniture designer, and original artist.” When asked what characterized his work, he said: “People admire my minimalism and cleanliness. I started with furniture when we were working with Cancio-Calma. We were the licensed manufacturers for Walter Knoll furniture. When I built houses, though small, I always used foreign design because it’s clean, even if the material was mostly wood. Because of Knoll’s influence, the design of my furniture was clean.

He was the recipient of various notable awards like: (1997) PRC-Outstanding Professional of the Year in Interior Design; (1997) Lifetime Awardee for Design and Architecture and (1992) PSID – Hall of Fame Award.

NATIONAL ARTIST NAPOLEON ABUEVA

One of the members of the Board of Advisers when the PSID was founded. He was born in 1930 and was the youngest to be given the National Artist Award at age 46. He is recognized as the ‘Father of Philippine Modern Sculpture’. He has over 700 sculptures and has acknowledged having been influenced by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, whom he called as ‘the sorcerer of modern sculpture’ from whom he learned the secrets of the sculptural forms he made. He asserted that his sculpture served a function or purpose as they are mostly in public spaces, most notably at the UN Headquarters in New York. A good purpose of his works being in public places serve as a dutiful reminder of the heroism of past generations as well as of the small and big moments that made history.

ARTURO LUZ

He was born in 1923 in Manila. He is a painter, sculptor and designer. One of the pioneers of Philippine modern art, he was recognized as a National Artist in 1997. He studied Fine Arts at the UST School of Fine Arts, after which he had his three-year scholarship at the California College of Arts and Craft at Oakdale. He then continued his studies at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York, and at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He is recognized later as part of the Neo-Realists and Thirteen Moderns. His works are defined by their sophisticated simplicity; and he best describes his style as ‘semirepresentational’ and ‘semi-abstracted.’ He joined the PSID as a member of the Board of Advisers.

WILI FERNANDEZ

He was a respected pillar of Philippine design, and considered as one of the early nationalists of Filipino design. In declaring his pride for his Filipino heritage, he always made it a point to have Filipino influences and character as the main influence in his designs.

Edith Oliveros gave this significant statement about her praise for the way that he rendered by hand his inspiring designs, using watercolor. It should be noted that in these times of computer-aided designs, his work and renderings will never be equaled: “His renderings were legendary. For many years, they were the standard for presentation techniques at design schools.”

To sum up, he had a good understanding of how designers should think: “create spaces for actual people to live in, fill them with comfort and efficiency and make them enclose beauty as well.”

ROSE MARIE BAUTISTA

Rose Marie Bautista obtained her degree in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas in 1959, but soon found out that teaching was what she longed for as a professional career. After teaching Architecture in St. Louis University, Baguio City she was recommended to teach at the Philippine School of Interior Design. She took on the challenge of teaching at the PSID in June of 1968. When Edith Oliveros left for an Educational tour, she took charge of Student Affairs.

Arch. Bautista said that, “The informal system of PSID had made the students more interested in the Interior Design program.” She taught Elements and Principles of Design, Perspective and Freehand Drawing which are all in the Basic Course. They were the foundations of the students’ interior design course.

Time witnessed the many ways in which the PSID evolved. Adjustments and changes in the curriculum were made. She was instrumental in coming up with the consortium with School of Design and Arts, DLSU College of Saint Benilde, where she then became the Chairperson of Interior Design.

Arch. Bautista shares that what she loves in teaching at PSID are the people: she loves the students because they want to learn, and she loves the faculty because they want to unselfishly share what they know. In simple terms, she appreciates the beautiful circle of giving and taking in education. The mixture or range of the students’ ages and varied foundation blend well with that of the teachers, too. The PSID is the school where students and teachers learn from each other. It is a learning environment where creativity in design approaches serve as a fertile ground for productive teacher–student conversations and exchanges.

NARDY AQUINO

Nardy Aquino is one of the first alumni of the Philippine School of Interior Design. He eventually became one of its pioneer teachers, too. It should be no surprise that his enjoyment of teaching stems from his desire to communicate and pass on what he has learned through his design experiences.

In 1979, Nardy Aquino pioneered supervising the first PSID major Interior Design exhibit entitled “Ambience”. It was mounted to mark the culmination of interior design studies of the PSID students. He started this with the first seven graduating students. This began the time-honored tradition of holding design exhibits done by each graduating class. This revealed other facets of the design prowess of the students by the application of the theories learned in materials, measurements, space utilization, lighting, textures and the over-all effect of the design plans. With this, it made design students celebrate the PSID’s commitment to design excellence.

Nardy Aquino is a known Interior Design practitioner whose high-end clients have consistently sought his design expertise, ranging from residential to commercial building interiors.