On Manila Standard Today: ‘Bahay Kubo’-inspired designs for MRBs

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An Italian architect with an eye for endemic Filipino design models like the “bahay kubo” is fast making a name in the local and international real estate and green architecture industry.

Architect Romolo V. Nati, Chairman and CEO of ITALPINAS Euroasian Design and Eco-Development Corporation (ItalPinas), said he sees the humble bahay-kubo as the quintessential sustainable house.

“We try to incorporate the bahay kubo green architecture concept into our designs,” Nati said of his Filipino team of architects.

ItalPinas built the first green medium rise building (MRB) complex in Mindanao – the Primavera Residences in Cagayan de Oro City.

Read the story here.

 

– MST News

Featured on Manila Standard Today, 16 July 2013

On the Manila Bulletin: In CDO, CEC Builds Mindanao’s First Eco-Friendly Building

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Constellation Energy Corporation (CEC) is spreading its business interests from renewable power to green architecture by building Mindanao’s first eco-friendly building in Cagayan de Oro City.

CEC’s partnership with ItalPinas Euroasian Design and Eco-Development Corporation (ITPI) has earned both firms local and international awards for their pioneering work in the city.

“Constellation Energy’s venture into green architecture is but a natural consequence of our company’s full thrust in exploring multi-technology RE projects,” said CEC Chairman Jose Leviste, whose firm has RE service contracts with the Department of Energy (DOE) for several geothermal, wind and hydroelectric projects all over the country.

Italian architect Romolo V. Nati, ITPI Chairman and CEO, said the firm’s first project, the Primavera Residences – a P450-million mixed-use 10-story twin-tower condominium – has eco-friendly design features, such as an inner courtyard and a cross-ventilation layout among the units to increase natural airflow and illumination.

The 160-unit Primavera Residences Tower A, which was completed last year, boasts of shaded façades to reduce direct sun illumination on the windows to bring down internal temperature of each unit. The building is equipped with photovoltaic solar panels on the rooftop for renewable energy production.

“With ItalPinas, we put our money where our mouth is by going to great lengths to put up eco-friendly and sustainable building,” said Nati, who also sits as vice chair of Constellations Energy.

Atty. Jose D. Leviste III, president of ItalPinas, said Primavera’s “passive design elements” had resulted in the reduction of 20 energy consumption in air-conditioning expense for their building residents.

Due to its revolutionary nature-friendly designs, Nati and Filipino architects at ItalPinas have received a number of green architecture awards, including one of the “Best Condo Developments” in the Philippines at the 2011 Southeast Asia Property Awards (SEAPA) held in Singapore in November 2011; and the “Special Energy Award” in the 2011 Design Against the Elements (DAtE) global architectural design competition.

Recently, its latest green condominium project received recognition from the Climate Technology Initiative Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN), whose funding partners include the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Set up in 2009, ItalPinas EuroAsian Design and Eco-development Corporation has partnerships with ICCP (Investment & Capital Corporation of the Philippines) Group of Companies, the leading independent investment bank in the country and the owner of a land development estate in Northern Mindanao; Habitat for Humanity Philippines; Pueblo de Oro Development Corporation; and FODC (First Oriental Development Corporation), a triple AAA contractor specializing in green building construction.

 

Featured in the Manila Bulletin, 11 July 2013

On Business Week Mindanao: Italpinas champions energy efficiency through green architecture in Mindanao Forum

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The designer and builder of Northern Mindanao’s first green building shares its advocacy for energy efficiency at the 1st Mindanao Energy Efficiency Forum (MEEF) scheduled for 23 July 2013 at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City.

Architect Romolo V. Nati, Chairman and CEO of Italpinas Euroasian Design and Eco-Development Corporation, will present “Energy Efficiency in the Real Estate Industry” as a ‘first mover’ designer and builder of Primavera Residences, a twin 10-story condominium at the Pueblo de Oro Business Park in Cagayan de Oro City.

“With Eco-Logic Architecture, the global warming and climate change compels us to move towards Energy Plus Buildings which are net producers, rather than net users of energy,” Arch. Nati said.

Read the rest of the story here.

 

Featured in Business Week Mindanao 07 July 2013

On Gold Star Daily: Italpinas plan cited among Asia’s top nexgen clean energy projects

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A new project by the designers and developers of Cagayan de Oro City’s first eco-friendly building has been cited as one of the top 10 clean energy projects that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Asia annually by nearly 1.1 million tons.

Italpinas Euroasian Design and Eco-Development Corporation’s new project was among those presented to investors at the CTI-PFAN Asia Forum for Clean Energy Financing (AFCEF-3) held February 22 at Singapore.

“We are very happy to be recognized among Asia’s elite clean energy projects for the next generation,” said Architect Romolo Valentino Nati, Italpinas chairman and chief executive officer, upon receiving the citation for Italpinas new project which officially finished fourth in the final ranking.

Over 100 financiers, clean energy experts and representatives of financial institutions from across Asia and overseas participated in the Forum. The meeting was organized by the Climate Technology Initiative’s Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI PFAN), a global multilateral initiative dedicated to connecting clean energy businesses with financing and “bridging the gap” between clean energy project developers and investors.

 

Read the full article here.

Featured by Gold Star Daily, 12 March 2013

On Business World: Cagayan de Oro Development gets ‘green’ loan

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Italpinas EuroAsian Design and Eco-Development Corp. has received a P180 million “green” development loan to partially finance the construction of its Primavera Residences Tower 2.

The loan agreement was signed in January by Romolo V. Nati, chairman and Jose D. Leviste III, president, on behalf of Italpinas and by Alfonso L. Salcedo, Jr., executive vice-president, and Mario B. Palau, senior vice-president for the Banks of the Philippine Islands (BPI).

Sustainability

“BPI advances its sustainable energy finance by continuing to support the energy[-efficiency] investments of its clients,” the bank said in a recent statement.

“In collaboration with International Finance Corp., the four year old innovative financing approach fund various efficient and renewable technologies all over the country,” it added, referring to the World Bank Group’s private sector investment arm.

BPI is the country’s third biggest universal bank in terms of assets, with over 809 branches and 2,542 automated teller machines nationwide, according to the statement.

‘Promising’

Italpinas’ business plan for Primavera Residences, on the other hand, was cited as one of the promising “clean” energy investment opportunities in the Philippines during the Philippine Clean Energy Investor Forum held at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Metro Manila in 2010.

This year, the Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) – a public-private partnership initiated by the Climate Technology Initiative (CTI), has cited Primavera Residence’s eco friendly design.

CTI-PFAN cited Italpinas’ new project as the only finalist from the Philippines for this year’s selection of 38 eco-friendly projects across Asia.

Primavera Residences is the first “green” building in Cagayan de Oro City that integrates into its design eco-friendly features such as rooftop solar panels to generate part of the two buildings’ electricity supply and reducing power use by maximizing natural light and wind ventilation.

Located at the Pueblo de Oro Business Park in uptown Cagayan de Oro City within the master-planned 360-hectare Pueblo de Oro Township, Primavera Residences is a P450-million 10-storey twin-tower condominium that was designed by Mr. Nati, an Italian architect, and developed by Italpinas, a corporate member of the Philippine Green Building Council.

The Primavera Residences Tower 2 will provide 167 residential units.

Construction, currently underway, is scheduled for completion by June.

 

-RMDB

Featured by BusinessWorld, 7 March 2013