Words TAYO Architecture & Design
Editing The Kanto team
Images Christine Ylen
At the center of Ijo Bakery Molito’s three-month-old branch sits a shape borrowed from its logo: a wavy croissant, traced in the round and then set rigid and stepped into a display counter, the set piece and center of gravity of the operation. Overhead, a run of illuminated panels repeats the same curve, throwing warm light down over the rows of croissants and pain au chocolat that have gained a cult following down south, staged the same way a boutique gallery spotlights its single most important piece.
We built the store around this conceit: if pastry chef Joaquin “Jio” Katigbak turns mundane ingredients into sculptural pastry, the room that makes them happen should be gallery-like in its exhibition of both the process and the art.
Katigbak, a graduate of De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde, trained at two Michelin-starred restaurants, Miramar in Spain and Gaggan in Bangkok. After training with master baker Richie Manapat, he returned to his native Lipa, Batangas, where he built Ijo Bakery’s maiden branch, and later a second outpost in Santa Rosa, Laguna. Armed with more than a decade in kitchens most pastry chefs would kill to work in, Katigbak helmed the design of his first two branches without an architect. Ready to venture up north, he understood he needed an architect’s expertise to hold his fort amongst the Metro’s many artisanal bakery options: the packaging needed to be just as delectable as the pastry.
For his first Metro Manila branch, a 120-square-meter bi-level space at Molito Lifestyle Center in Alabang, Muntinlupa, Katigbak brought in our practice, asking for a functional takeout and production hub with a distinctive presence in a complex already teeming with gastronomic options. The store opened in June 2026.
As with any F&B assignment, our design had to straddle the divide between function and aesthetics, and we were glad to work with a hands-on collaborator like Jio, who made sure the space could support the precision his operation runs on. The ground floor holds the bread display, ordering counter, coffee bar, and office, while the mezzanine takes the production area, ovens, walk-in chiller, and dumbwaiter. A fully glazed frontage with minimalist signage lets daylight in, and the interiors strike the same balance of airiness and structure that both architecture and a well-laminated croissant chase.
At its heart, Ijo is a Lipeño viennoiserie. The wood-heavy material palette nods to the bakery’s provincial roots, while metals carry the ovens’ steely discipline, creating a warm, workmanlike backdrop to the gastronomic gymnastics of its celebrated pastries. A pottery display from fellow Lipa native Pablo Capati IV of Paburo Pots adds a second local craft into the mix, reinforcing the space as a celebration of craft in progress as much as a vitrine for the finished product.
The counter invites customers to walk its full circumference, the way you’d circle a piece in a gallery, taking in the store’s vaunted croissants and myriad options from every angle before ordering. The footprint is tight enough that seating stays minimal: a single bench with coffee tables, good for eight to ten guests, alongside the counter that otherwise runs grab-and-go. We built double duty into the space wherever it allowed. Self-service trays and tongs sit tucked into the base of the central bread display, out of the way until needed. Bar shelving does the same trick, holding pastry boxes and doubling as the space’s interior signage.
For Ijo Bakery, architecture is the stage, not the performer. Judging from the Google Reviews of the newest Ijo addition, we are more than glad that the real stars of the show, Jio’s baked creations, are getting most of the attention. •
Project Team
Project Name: Ijo Bakery Molito
Project Location: Alabang, Muntinlupa, Metro Manila
Total Floor Area: 120 sqm
Date of Completion: June, 2026
Design Team: TAYO Architecture & Design @design.tayo
Ar. Jaime Recto, Ar. Dana Ochotorena, Ar. Justine Felix, and Ar. Patrick Lee
Engineering: Kyber Engineering
Contractor: Medavis Builders @medavisbuilders
