Tropical Living. Elizabeth V. Reyes

windows on all sides.

      Makapugay Compound

      a fusior of styles

      The exotic weekend retreat of the Makapugay family is called Casal da Feiticeira or Enchanted Castle. Located on a high spot on the Calatagan highway, the resthouse overlooks the shimmering China Sea and celebrates a fusion of styles: Balinese, colonial Indochine, and certain Portuguese elements. Comprising four cogon-thatched units of differing sizes, all hunched around a dark, stone-lined swimming pool, it has two bedroom suites, a sala and dining pavilion, and separate kitchen unit all interconnected by wooden walkways raised three steps off the hot Batangas ground.

      The compound was designed by Jun Makapugay, Raul Manzano, and Becky Macapugay Oliveira and is a celebration of rustic-chic architecture combined with stylish interiors. Overlooking the left side of the pool (overleaf) is the wide-open dining room, connected to the sala by a brief passage through a Zen garden of white pebbles, crowned by a Thai bodhisattva. The sala combines an eclectic mix of traditional Indonesian furniture, while the guest bathroom is an amazing work of shell craftsmanship: thousands of sigay (small cowry shells) line the walls and light spills out of giant volutes.

      The bedroom pavilions express the tastes of the two separate owners: Manzano stays in a headman's octagonal-shaped loft, while Becky Oliviera, the much-traveled mistress of this picturesque Asian beach manor, stays in the lovely Indochine suite. Every inch speaks of an elegant colonial-chic taste.

      (Previous pages) All is Asian, elegant, and eclectic in the main pavilion The dining room with a balcony over the pool connects to a contemporary Asian sitting room, passing through an oriental "altar" setting: a Zen garden of white pebbles and a Thai bodhisattva blessing all who pass there. The sala (above) is an exquisite Pan-Asian mix of traditional Indonesian furniture with contemporary Western armchairs, antique oriental statuary and accessories with modem Arrakis Oggetti lights suspended overhead truly an avant-garde accent.

      Bedroom interiors express tastes of separate but equally stylish co-owners: For bachelor Manzano, the octagonal headman's loft, a two-story Asian-Javanese unit with masks and spears at the door (opposite, top), complete with four poster bed with Chinese carved headboard; and day beds and games to play upstairs. For Becky Oliviera, a pure Indochine setting: her four poster bed, custom-made by E. Murio in fine cane, is draped with gauzy curtains, matched with twin black drawer sets and an antique cabinet from the ancestral home.

      Yabut Compound

      bali-mexican fantasy

      Situated in Calatagan on the southernmost tip of Batangas province, the weekend home of former Manila Mayor Nemesio Yabut is part-tropical resthouse pavilion and part-southwestern ranch Built atop a commanding hill, the house glows from a distance: it is newly painted in bright shades of papaya, aqua, and raspberry: refurbished with nipa roofing over a massive fro t verandah; and lit up with hot-colored throw pillows and covers, ceramic jars, and massive modern accents. The interior designer daughter, Gayle Yabut, upkeeps and updates what she calls the family's "modern Filipino-Mediterranean" vacation house (right and page 52). Her own house (see pages 56-59) and the house of her brother (pages 53-55) lie close by—the three dwellings comprise a fanciful fusion of Balinese, Mexican,, and African architecture.

      On a separate hilltop. of the Yabut property is an outre and off-the-wall creation, designed by Nemesio Yabut's son, Ricky This weekend abode started from a simple pueblo-style bungalow—with organic, rounded wall edges, and rustic wood inserts—and blossomed into a multicolored New Mexican fantasy. From the outside, the house gleams with the bright shades of the main Yabut house—Ricky paints his place in ripe papaya, fuschia-rose, and dijon-mustard, hot fiesta colors that seem to have spilled over to his own hilltop. His longspan rooftop is tinted bronze; his floors are of varnished, polished cement. And all around are the graphic plants that can take the hot Batangas sun: yuccas, sugar palms, and cacti.