Embracing the Night at Tayap Church

“I love the dark. After your eyes adjust, you’d be surprised how much you can see,” the Tayap shares. “When I’m here, I just sit in the dark, enjoying the moon and stars and listening to the night sounds. It’s fun! Especially when my son is with me—he uses Night Sky, an app to point out the planets and constellations.”

The conservator, an advocate for Philippine heritage, originally intended to purchase only a hectare or two in the hilly reaches of Silay. However, destiny intervened, enabling him to acquire 11.8. His vision: a sanctuary for those seeking respite from urban artifice. Yet, his immediate concern wasn’t building his personal retreat but a chapel for the local community of Tayap and neighboring sitios in Barangay Patag.

The Austronesian and the Contemporary

The conservator approached architect Antonio Legaspi with a simple brief: to conceive a house of worship distinct yet harmonious with Tayap’s lush surrounds. Central to this vision were a pair of hardwood antique doors 5.8 meters high and 2.6 meters wide. 

Legaspi’s design was to be a nod to the architecture of the Philippines’ Austronesian ancestors while embracing contemporary aesthetic sensibilities. The chapel’s soaring thatched roof peaks at seven meters. Its steep pitch is a practical and symbolic gesture—efficiently channeling rainwater away while pointing to the heavens, inviting eye and spirit upward, and elevating the chapel’s ethereal atmosphere.

Light and Nature

Employing Dark Sky principles would reduce light pollution, allowing the conservator and his son to enjoy the moon and stargazing, and preserving Tayap’s night-time ecology. He gave CSLDI no directives regarding light spills and glare, but the lighting designers, like architect Legaspi, were his long-time friends and intuitively respected his love and care for wildlife.

The conservator planted the land with hundreds of hardwood, flowering, and fruit-bearing trees to benefit Tayap’s human inhabitants and, every bit as importantly, for birds and other creatures to prosper. Many species rely on the cover of natural darkness for navigation, mating, and protection from predators, so reducing artificial light would help maintain the delicate balance of Tayap’s nocturnal ecosystems.

Every effort to minimize light pollution, therefore, is like reconnecting with our universal ancestry. And the conservator’s love for the dark transcends personal preference—it is a commitment to safeguarding a shared heritage that binds us to the beginning of our world. By preserving the dark skies of Tayap, the conservator ensures this sanctuary remains a place where the future can continually rediscover ancient ties to the stars. In doing so, Tayap becomes a testament to the power of thoughtful architectural and lighting design to enhance human and ecological well-being and anchor our fleeting presence in the timeless rhythms of the universe.

This article has been abridged for digital publication. Read the full story behind the Tayap Church by ordering your copy of BluPrint’s “Design Conversations” at Sari Sari Shopping, Shopee, and Lazada. E-magazines are also available for download here or through  Readly, Press Reader, and Magzter.

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Photographed by Ed Simon

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