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Orama Minimal Frames
The Visionaries PH: A Story of Place, Purpose, and the Architecture that Responds
In the tropics, architecture is more than form, it is a response. To heat and rain, to wind and sound, to how people move, gather, rest, and grow. Orama Visionaries PH was created to highlight the architects who understand this intimately, shaping spaces that breathe with climate, culture, and the lives lived within them.
For the campaign’s first chapter, Orama turns to BAAD Studio, whose practice is built on a deep sensitivity to context and to the people they design for.
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 Architects Benjee and An, 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 architecture here must always consider its users and the environment in equal measure. It must be both protective and open, technical and human.
This philosophy comes alive in the DL House, the featured project for this year’s Orama Visionaries PH campaign and notably, the pioneer home to install Orama Minimal Frames in the Philippines back in 2018.
Positioned between two existing homes and close to a busy avenue, the site demanded a thoughtful approach. 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.
Natural materials became central to the architecture. The client’s own collection of hardwoods shaped the atmosphere of the home, paired with stone, natural light, and the textures of wood and shadow. The delineation between inside and out was intentionally blurred through light wells, air pockets, and transition spaces.
The result: a home that is comfortable without heavy reliance on mechanical cooling, a space that adapts with the sun’s angle, the weather, and even how the people move through it. BAAD Studio speaks of the DL House as a place of shifting perspectives, where every corner offers a different view, and each moment feels distinct depending on time of day and natural conditions.
For a home that relies so much on the movement of air, light, and shadow, the window system became a defining part of the design. Here, Orama Minimal Frames played a crucial role.
Living beside a highway requires protection from noise. Living in the Philippines demands resilience against typhoons and strong winds. And the client’s request for seamless flooring from inside to outdoors required a system that could achieve continuity without compromising structure or comfort. Orama answered all of these.
The Orama Z System, with its slender profiles, nearly invisible tracks, and Omicron double glazing, allowed the architects to maintain clarity between inside and out while keeping unwanted elements at bay. When open, the panels dissolve. When closed, the connection to nature remains crisp and uninterrupted. As Benjee describes it, “There’s a very small differentiation of it being open and it being closed.” A quality essential to a home designed to embrace the outdoors while standing firmly against tropical conditions.
The client chose Orama not only because the product matched the design intent, but also because of their long-standing trust in Focus Global Inc., a partnership that ensured quality, service, and peace of mind.
Looking ahead, BAAD Studio sees tropical design moving toward sustainability, not just in aesthetics, but in materials, construction, and the values embedded in each project. They speak of recycling, upcycling, computer-aided manufacturing, and a deeper sensitivity to how architecture impacts both people and the environment. But at the core remains a timeless principle: authenticity, collaboration, and a genuine understanding of how a family lives.
Every project becomes an opportunity to refine this balance - proportion, materiality, context, and beauty - pushing the conversation of Filipino architecture forward while staying grounded in culture and place.
Orama Visionaries PH celebrates this way of thinking. It highlights architects who respond to climate not as a constraint but as a guide, those who see spaces not as static structures, but as environments that breathe, shift, and evolve. In the DL House, BAAD Studio reveals what tropical architecture can be today: conscious, comfortable, resilient, and deeply connected to the land and light that shape it.
This is the story we tell. This is the vision we honor. This is Orama Visionaries PH.
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