Words and interview Patrick Kasingsing
Co-editing Lawrence Carlos
Images Greg Mayo (The Corner House)
Editor’s note: The Corner House held its grand opening on March 13, 2025. We have updated this piece to include a brief interview with its architects, Amata Luphaiboon and Twitee Vajrabhaya of the Department of Architecture Bangkok, conducted during the ceremony.
“It’s all organic! We haven’t even started our marketing push just yet,” declares marketing manager Jas Reducindo when asked about how The Corner House San Juan went viral.
She’s just finished giving me a tour of this new striking community center in the heart of the city of San Juan. One can’t miss it from the corner of P. Guevara and Recto Streets, with its forest of slender white I-beam columns rising from vegetated berms. Glazed boxes punch through from the structural steel frames at irregular intervals, while ramps stretch across and rise to offer views of other parts of the city.
Reducindo adds, “[On] one side you can see Quezon City, [on] the other side you can see Makati…so it’s like your reward after going the 500 meters up and the 500 meters down,” referring to the jogging path that ascends the building in an attempt to activate its circulation and façades beyond conventional retail frontages.
Even on soft opening, The Corner House San Juan already looks like a vibrant container for conviviality. The current level of footfall bodes well for a retail development that is still only half full. For developer and project visionary Arthur Dichaves, the strength of the concept lies in the tenant mix and the premium they placed on open space. “We prioritized tenants with new concepts and ideas over chains and franchises. We are like a startup space for startups!” Dichaves proclaims.
In affording a more significant proportion to common space, this more novel approach (as opposed to fully enclosed malls with little space for sedentary comfort) is designed to encourage visitors and customers to properly sit and relax. Social stairs are aplenty. The intention is for The Corner House to be a place to linger and gather and not merely where quick transactions take place.
Expounding on the genesis of his vision, Dichaves continues, “When you go to, for example, Hong Kong, the mall is open, but the shops are closed, but you can go through it. Here in the Philippines, it’s a bit of a foreign concept. So, I also looked at the interstitial spaces that link [to the city, which] are always open.”
The Corner House presents a bold model for the community center typology in the Philippines and its success will eventually be measured once all tenants have bedded themselves in. The developer is keen to forge long-term relationships with local brands they partner with. Dichaves is adamant that “this is a brand we’re going to run properly.” Their partner mix is diverse: even among F&B alone, the ‘menu’ offered across all establishments is broad; there are salons, galleries, yoga centers, and an upmarket grocery on the ground floor.
There are also signs that, as the building claims this part of the city through its presence, the surrounding bedroom community is gradually warming up to its striking new neighbor. Reducindo mentions that the ones who live nearby and see The Corner House daily are the “best survey possible” for how they gauge whether it is doing well. Having been used to Greenhills for the longest time, it seems the San Juan community finally has something they can own for themselves.
For the design-eye-discerning traveler, if The Corner House finds semblance to the lofty halls and forest of pillars in equally IG fodder theCOMMONS Thonglor, that is because they both trace their DNA to the same Bangkok-based firm, the Department of Architecture. The architects, working with their local counterpart BAAD Studio, originally designed the steel columns to be substantially slimmer, but these were thickened due to earthquakes in the Philippines.
As the foreign architect-in-charge, they were very hands-on throughout the entire process–so much so that they consider the building their best work to date. Even the opening was delayed until the finishes were done to the developer and architect’s expected standard–those that were badly executed were rejected and redone over and over until they were on par.
The design’s response to its environment also helps make The Corner House a place to stay and slow down. Its openness draws breezes right through the heart of the building, and Dichaves is even comfortable with a bit of rain straying inside the common spaces. When it does rain, a sensor detects rainfall levels and automatically deploys an awning system to shield shop frontages. Monochromatic finishes become illuminated in different colors filtered through dichroic film-finished glass, capping skylight openings across the ceiling.
As with any development on soft opening, there are bound to be teething issues. I spotted a guy mid-TikTok routine in possibly one of the most striking public restrooms I’ve ever entered. Despite the restroom being luminous and spacious, the wall to the outside behind the wash basins is fully glazed. The loss of privacy may startle a few customers. The roof deck where the jogging path culminates and what closes the loop is also closed, so it remains to be seen how this function can be managed operationally without detracting from the original intent.
The Corner House does ask its users to adopt a change in behavior, as much as it offers something unique. The best-case scenario is that it continues to grow and be “the living room of the city.” With ongoing plans to host events and community gatherings, the stage is set for a customer experience that includes the immediate urban context beyond its lot boundary. As is often the case with other privately developed retail spaces in the country, activity is either contained or inward-looking. This building flips the script. Bringing the city in and letting activity spill out onto the streets one and the same is a cornerstone of many a vibrant community.
TikTok magnetism isn’t all that animates the center. I stayed throughout the day in the space, both for the interview and the shoot, and watched as people of all ages wandered inside. You have students doing group work, working professionals in Zoom meets, business types walking in mid-phone call, gravitating towards a.m. coffee, located at the heart of the center, often mistaken as the anchor tenant (note: there are none).
Surprisingly, Dichaves isn’t a frequent social media user, so one could say he’s oblivious to the hype, but he knows what he sees on the ground. “I’m just happy that there are a lot of people…people are laughing…people TikToking…I’m just happy that I feel like they accepted the concept.” Dichaves is closely observing how this experiment unfolds; hypothetically speaking, should it do favorably well, it may not be the only corner in the country that will be unlocked in this way. •
An Interview with Amata Luphaiboon and Twitee Vajrabhaya of Department of Architecture
Hello Amata and Twitee! Congratulations on the opening of The Corner House! It truly is a unique space and a welcome addition to the Metro. Beyond its open, porous design, how else does The Corner House serve as a model for rethinking the relationship between private developments and public spaces in dense urban landscapes such as San Juan?
Amata Luphaiboon, Department of Architecture: Thank you very much! During our preliminary studies, we noticed that many commercial establishments here look internally and disregard the context. For The Corner House, we sought to create and encode what sometimes goes in and out within the architecture, like a dialogue with our surrounding context. This means people can appreciate the interior spaces at the same time as the exterior at different eye levels. The porosity of the architecture invites interest and predictability, intense activity, and pockets of calm. The city outside is never out of sight no matter where the visitor is, where it is both background that peeks in between the metal pillars and the rooftop, and foreground when one finally steps out of The Corner House.
Twitee Vajrabhaya, Department of Architecture: This is one example of making a private commercial development that still entertains the benefits of embracing context. There is an exciting flow of people going in and out, and all of this is visible thanks to the open architecture: the people using the jogging path will see people walking into the spaces and ramps and out. This openness and transparency enrich the relationship between customers and the neighborhood.
So you talked about the 500-m long jogging path, one of my favorite aspects of The Corner House because I enjoy walking. It’s a unique feature to have in a commercial establishment in the Philippines. Is it a conscious design decision to include it in The Corner House? Is it an urban statement you want to make or a social experiment your team at the Department of Architecture wants to try? And what do you think are the kinds of unexpected behavior the existence of a jogging path like this will create?
Luphaiboon: When we first visited the site, we noticed that the walkway along the road surrounding the site was so narrow. In some locations, there was no walkway at all. No sidewalk. So I was asking the owner how people jog here, because in Thailand a lot of people jog. He said no, we cannot jog on these streets. We thought creating a jogging track for people in the neighborhood or just about anyone would invite people to enter the structure. Unlike before, it is now easier and safer to jog because of the track. So you’ll notice that the entrance of the jogging path is almost to the edge of the property. This is so people will feel free to come in and jog and then go out.
So, even in the early design stage, the jogging path was already part of the plan?
Luphaiboon: Yes. Also, it may not be obvious to users yet, but the jogging track is independent of the space’s regular circulation plan. So shoppers and joggers won’t crash into each other.
Vajrabhaya: Another thing about the jogging track is that while as Amata says, it is independent of the space’s circulation pattern, it is still subtly intertwined with the public spaces within the building; we want to encourage community gathering but also encourage meeting new people. We want The Corner House to be primarily a space of connection, for people not just to meet friends but make new ones. We also want our visitors to feel themselves here, after all, this is their neighborhood space.
I agree. Because, like in the typical mall, the architecture is designed to condition you to buy, right? But here, there is no pressure to consume. I want to explore, walk and hang around, run on the jogging path, talk with my friends…The programming feels more open and not necessarily cost-driven.
Luphaiboon: That is good to hear. Though in the case of the jogging path, its usage and acceptance…We feel this needs time to evolve; as you said, it is a new element in a local building. But we are optimistic that as time passes, things will change, and the public won’t feel shy about running on it!
Haha! You both should try running on it and document it on TikTok (laughs). This space has gotten quite a reputation on that platform! I remember seeing someone dance in front of the mirrored walls in the men’s room as I entered during a previous visit!
Okay, last question before I let you off to join the festivities. When you both first walked through the finished building, was there a space or a detail that surprised you? Something that felt different from what you originally intended for The Corner House?
Luphaiboon: Okay, let me go first. My last time here was one and a half years ago when The Corner House was 80% complete. At that time, I hadn’t seen the effect of the skylight at night. So, last night, when we arrived and asked to go up to the roof, we saw all the light boxes installed with lighting. It looked beautiful! It looks just like, or even better than, the renders. Because in rendering, you cannot accurately portray the dichroic film’s lighting and effect. Last night, we finally saw it, and it’s as if we are viewing a lighting installation in a dream-like landscape.
It must have looked magical indeed, with the glowing cubes amidst the thicker grass and the berms that have grown lush; you couldn’t tell you were on a rooftop until you saw the view.
Vajrabhaya: Yes! And during the day, it’s a beautiful moment to see the light penetrate the skylights into the spaces below. The colors animate the different spots of the building and change constantly depending on weather and cloud cover.
I’ve seen this in action, almost as if the building is alive alongside its community. To share, during my first visit to the space for this feature, I decided to stay the day here because I wanted to see how the building works and responds to its users, whether the passive cooling works, what time of day we get fantastic shadowplay, the sort of users it attracts.
It’s fascinating because I could see a spectrum of personas for The Corner House as the weather shifted and the day progressed. I also saw the many types of users it attracts, from students doing group work to business people in online meetings, millennial types drinking coffee with their friends, and moms out for afternoon catchups. It truly has become a community living room!
Luphaiboon: That’s all we need to hear! I am happy to see how the city is embracing this space we’ve worked hard on! •
