A Study In Synchronicity

Playing up simplicity on the outside and an appealing eclecticism within, architect Ed Ledesma works closely with his client to create a unique urban home.

- Marga Manlapig

Don’t touch anything!” This was the emphatic edict laid down by architect Ed Ledesma’s client when he began work on this particular house in 2015. “It was an old house,” Ledesma recalls, adding that the original structure was designed and built by one of the country’s most renowned architects several decades ago. The only structure he was commissioned to work on was a semi-detached wing that would serve as the master’s suite. “I was only supposed to fix one area—the bedroom wing—and my task was to simply renovate.”

Located in suburban Makati, the original house was done with a Mediterranean aesthetic in mind, and had a small tower with massive arched windows—a detail that the owner asked to keep untouched. But the owner’s wife did not really agree with her husband’s orders to leave the rest of the house as it was.

“She told me she wanted something different,” he says, remembering the initial conversations regarding the house. “So I gave her a few options to consider.” Over the next three years, Ledesma would find himself working closely with her on the full transformation of the Makati property. His initial design proposal was characterised by modern Mexican flair: a structure marked by simpler, cleaner lines and rich, earthy colours. While the overall aesthetic appealed to the owners, they balked at the overt use of colour for their walls. A compromise was made, and the walls were kept white, though wooden panelling with rustic finishes would later add visual interest to the spaces.

“I believe in keeping things simple,” Ledesma says when asked about the exterior aesthetic of bare walls and natural finishes. “It was [the famed architect] IM Pei who said ‘The simpler it is, the more powerful it becomes.’”