BAAD Studio Designs For Seamless Living In A Tropical Environment

In the tropics, architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary begins with response. Heat, humidity, wind, and rainfall are constants that shape how a home is oriented, ventilated, and lived in. In this context, light and air become as essential as walls and structure.

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Founded in 2010, BAAD Studio’s beginnings were, by the architects’ own words, “organic.” The firm grew naturally, shaped by real demand and grounded in what they could do well. This foundation has long informed their approach: design that resonates with a client’s vision while performing within the realities of tropical life.

For Arch. Benjee Mendoza and Arch. An Bermejo-Mendoza, good design is never just aesthetic. It is deeply tied to its place, its climate, its light, its culture. It should respond to harsh conditions without losing the character of the environment it belongs to. As Benjee notes, “You cannot take off functionality from design.” And in Southeast Asia, this functionality is inseparable from climate.

To them, climate-responsiveness isn’t a trend, it is the baseline. Good architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary here must always consider its users and the environment in equal measure. It must be both protective and open, technical and human.

This thinking comes into focus in the DL House, where the architects approached the site as a system of air, light, and movement. The design required both openness and protection, BAAD Studio responded with a plan rooted in courtyards, voids, and pockets of air—spaces that pull light from above and allow the home to breathe. 

These priorities become most critical in the window system.

A System That Defines Spatial Continuity

For a home designed around permeability, the window system becomes more than an opening—it defines how architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary engages with its environment. In the DL House, this became a key decision point.

The requirements were clear: mitigate noise from nearby roads, withstand strong winds, and tropical weather. At the same time, the system needed to preserve visual clarity and spatial continuity.

BAAD Studio turned to Orama Minimal Frames, selecting the Orama Z system for its refined integration of performance and minimalism. With Omicron double glazing, the system delivers environmental protection while carefully regulating heat and sound insulation, which is critical to the urban tropical context.

Climate-Responsive Approach

Looking ahead, BAAD Studio sees tropical architecture advancing through material innovation, lower-impact construction, and more responsive building systems. Yet its core remains rooted in lived patterns, how occupants move, gather, rest, and adapt throughout the day. In the DL House, this approach results in a space that is adaptive, resilient, and attuned to its setting. It is architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary shaped not by abstraction, but by climate, culture, and everyday use. Featured as part of Orama: The Visionaries PH campaign, the project is also notably the pioneer home to install Orama Minimal Frames in the Philippines in 2018—marking an early integration of high-performance glazing systems within a tropical design framework.

This initiative recognizes architects who treat the tropics not as a limitation, but as a guide—where design is shaped by climate and made possible through systems that quietly enable it.

Orama Minimal Frames is exclusively distributed by Focus Global Inc.

For more information, follow @orama_philippines on Instagram or visit the showroom at 11F Twenty-Four Seven McKinley, 24th Street cor. 7th Avenue, BGC, Taguig
T: +63 917 111 0909

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