Artemio Alcoseba

Artemio Alcoseba began his architectural odyssey in 1956 when, at 23, he ventured into private practice in Cebu soon after placing seventh in that year’s board exams for architects.

Three years later he joined the faculty of the University of San Carlo’s Department of Architecture, teaching architectural design and eventually becoming department chairman in 1975. It was during these years that he developed a creative approach to design – used in his own professional practice – which he introduced to students to help them overcome the rigors of design.

He retired from the academe to concentrate on his work as architect consultant to the SVD Fathers and missionaries, responsible for the design and construction of such complex projects as formation centers, churches, seminaries, schools and other institutional buildings in such places as Ilocos Province, Bangued, Metro Manila, Tacloban, Tagbilaran, Davao as well as Cebu.

In more than four decades of architectural practice Alcoseba has amassed a body of work which has a very recognizable character, rooted in the search for a national architectural identity – a “Filipino architecture,” if you will – that began in the early 60s.

This character finds expression in the recurring elements of his work: wood or concrete baffled to filter the tropical sun, fragmented volumes which allow more light and air while creating varied and interesting masses and voids, and skewed angles in the plan to break the monotony of straight lines while retaining a rhythmic pattern.

It is also the result of a design process which seeks to find a balance between spontaneity (the creative impulse) and pragmatism (practically). This requires from the designer not just reason and imagination but also emotional commitment – which makes designing, if all goes well, an emotionally rewarding experience.

Most of the buildings in the USC Talamban campus are the result of this process: the dormitories and dining hall, university chapel, Science building, retreat house and the new Arts and Sciences building. It is the same process he uses on his domestic architecture as well.

Long after leaving the classroom behind, Artemio Alcoseba continues to teach architects and would-be architects through his work. Each new building is a lesson on design written in the language of architecture – space, form, structure, mass, light, line, color and texture.

And with each new building his odyssey continues.

- Architect Dioscoro Alesna Jr.