All posts tagged: taal

Upcycled Plastic Waste Goes to Paris

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Plastic trash from the Philippines’ Taal Volcano will soon be traveling thousands of miles to the City of Lights, all dressed up as chic upcycled furniture. Interior designer and eco-activist Wilhelmina “Willie” Garcia will join a select group of new and emerging design talents from all over the world who will showcase their innovative creations — everything from fashion to furniture to gastronomy — at the Paris Design Week on September 8-16. Garcia, co-founder of JunkNot Eco Creatives, will bring her bestselling Bangko stool to the Now! Le Off exhibition, one of the highlights of the design event, which will be held in 180 venues across Paris. The Bangko will also serve as her entry to the Rado Design Prize 2017. “There was a call for proposals early this year. I submitted, and I got accepted. I’m really excited,” Garcia said. After Paris, her Bangko will be off to Belgium for the eco-festival Conscienza 2017. Dubbed by a design magazine as one of the “Creatives to Watch,” Garcia is a familiar figure in the country’s …

The House of a Forgotten Heroine

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Actress Gretchen Barretto was here before me. So were Sharon Cuneta and Judy Ann Santos, both superstars, which probably explains why the receptionist-cum-tour guide’s question, as she ushered our group into the pre-1850 ancestral house, was: “Did you watch MMK (Maalala Mo Kaya) last night?” Um, no, we didn’t. “Well, this is the house where they shot that episode, with Gretchen. She even had a scene in the bathroom. A lot of movie stars have been here,” she said proudly. That’s how Casa Villavicencio is introduced these days—an old house that makes for a great movie set. Luckily, guests to this popular destination in Taal, Batangas are asked to watch a short video that introduces the house for what it was—a refuge for Philippine revolutionary heroes and home for a couple who largely funded the work of those heroes. The yellow-and-sea green stone mansion still standing at no. 33 Marella Street holds a treasure of stories not normally found in history books. Few Filipinos are familiar with a woman named Gliceria Marella de Villavicencio, dubbed …