Research & tools
We build and publish the methods we use.
Studies of Philippine cities, methods we have developed on live projects, the papers behind them, and software we make for the field.
Tool
PlaceWright
A field instrument for the built environment, developed within the practice. Every site visit is filed under one project: notes, tasks, markups, punchlists, walks and site data, on your own device, with or without a signal.
- Walk the site and the track records itself. Every photo pins where you stood and where you pointed.
- Punchlists that carry proof, with defects going from open to fixed to verified.
- Set the scale on a plan, then draw like you draft, with dimensions in real units.
- Pin one coordinate and read the site: satellite map, sun path, wind, contours, slope and hazards in one report.
In closed testing on iPhone, iPad and Android.
placewright.studio →
Tool
SpaceSyntaxApp
Space syntax on your phone. Drop a pin anywhere and see which streets carry the most movement and which are easiest to reach.
- Two views of every street: the ones journeys pass along, and the ones easiest to reach.
- Any scale, from a 400-metre walk to a 10-kilometre drive.
- Works offline in the field, and exports maps and a printed atlas.
In closed testing on iPhone and iPad, with Mac and Android to follow. Street data from OpenStreetMap contributors.
Ask for early access →
Studies and methods
Work we did to understand Philippine cities better.
Research
Why Metro Manila's centres sit along EDSA, and why they are hard to walk.
We analysed the street network of Metro Manila to understand how its business districts and the residential communities around them form the city's fabric. The districts all gathered along EDSA, the corridor with the highest connectivity and through-movement, while inside each district the streets connect poorly and life runs on cars.
A second part of the study identifies the city's open enclaves, districts without gates or walls such as Malate, Ermita and the Quezon City government district, and compares them with the gated fabric that came later.
Method
Counting the people a site can reach.
Developed on a pilot study for a community mall operator, this method uses points of interest as a measure of local activity and street-network accessibility to work out how many people a site really serves. The catchment population then drives a footfall estimate that can be compared across candidate locations.
We have since applied it to a proposed agri-commercial centre in Nueva Ecija.
Proposal
'Between the Lines': a pavilion shaped by where people would look and gather.
A curatorial proposal for the Philippine Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, prepared with SpaceFabrik and the artists Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan. Visibility analysis of the pavilion floor tested where visitors would gather, where they could hide, where they would pass through and what they could see, and the design followed the findings.
Method
Visibility analysis for interiors.
The same visibility mapping we use for pavilions works for offices, schools and shops. On a penthouse headquarters it placed the collaboration areas where they can be seen while keeping visual control over the workspaces. On a college campus it tested how students would move through the building, using simulated pedestrians.
Publications
Papers and dissertations behind the methods.
Written by our managing director, Leandro Poco, some with co-authors. Full lists on ResearchGate and Academia.
Journal article
- 2023Using Space Syntax to Rediscover Metro Manila's Old Urbanism: Retrofitting a City-Region for Sustainability and ResilienceThe Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 111, no. 2, pp. 131–162
Conference papers
- 2024Suburbia in Stasis: How Dasmariñas City's fragmented spatial network and frozen single-family zoning hinders maturation into urbanity14th International Space Syntax Symposium, Cyprus. With co-author
- 2022Spanish Colonial Enclave Urbanism: Manila's Intramuros and how exclusion and waterway connectivity created the Binondo (Manila Chinatown) Trading District13th International Space Syntax Symposium, Bergen
- 2022Yellowfield Redevelopment: Identifying latent centralities in Metro Manila's suburban gated residential fabric as opportunities for reconfiguration and suburban retrofitting13th International Space Syntax Symposium, Bergen
- 2022
Papers and preprints
- 2025
- 2025The Space Syntax of Manila Bay's Reclamation AreasPreprint, with co-authors
- 2025A Spatial Comparison of Contemporary Philippine Suburban Retail Mall TypologiesPreprint, with co-authors
- 2025The 'Servant' Spaces of the Bahay-na-Bato, the Philippines' Spanish Colonial Villa TypologyPreprint, with co-authors
- 2025The Space Syntax of Metro CebuPreprint, with co-author
- 2022
Presentation
- 2024Venice Architecture Biennale 2025: Between the LinesCuratorial proposal for the Philippine Pavilion, with co-author
Dissertations
- 2019Enclave Sub/Urbanism: A Historical and Configurational Assessment of Metro Manila's Centres of Exclusion and their Surrounding Spatial FabricMSc Space Syntax: Architecture and Cities, University College London
- 2008
Working with us
Have a question a study could answer?
Universities, developers and local governments can commission any of these studies on their own. Write to us with the question.
Contact the studio →