Renovation: how an old factory became a bright, breezy design workspace with a glorious courtyard garden
- When Filipino designer Bea Valdes needed a new home for her Manila atelier, her serial renovator mother found a boxy old juice factory as the ideal blank canvas
- Relishing this garden oasis in urban Manila, Valdes’ team often take their breaks within or in view of the courtyard
Without any formal architecture training – but with decades of hands-on experience – serial renovator Pamela Valdes is adept at finding a property diamond in the rough.
So, when her designer daughter, Bea Valdes, needed a new home for the workshop of her Filipino brand, Beavaldes, and her mother identified a boxy, concrete ex-juice factory in downtown Manila as the ideal blank canvas, Bea and sister Margarita Valdes-Trinidad (Marga), also her business partner, did not doubt her judgment.
And so, in 2016, the Beavaldes Atelier was born, a 1,000 square metre (10,760 square foot), three-storey oasis in the Philippine capital, where fashion accessories, artworks and clothing, produced by local artisans espousing the ideals of slow fashion, are brought to life for a loyal international following.
Pamela has built or transformed about 30 homes and commercial properties for family members and friends. The potential she saw for natural light, ventilation and a glorious garden would “show a different side to manufacturing”, Marga explains. As much as it would be a place to work, create and experiment, the setting should also be calming and peaceful.
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“We wanted to show the space where we create as a reflection of how we live,” adds Bea. “Aside from the quality we produce, we want the team to feel comfortable and inspired in the place where they spend eight hours a day.”
The transition from bare-bones factory to designer atelier was a team effort. Two architects, DDC Architectural Studio (now DEQA Design Collaborative) and Arturo Grau, a family friend and independent consultant, contributed to the spatial planning and engineering. Pamela enlisted her go-to team of contractors for the renovation. Bea, who studied interior design at London’s Inchbald School of Design before turning her talents to fashion, influenced the interior finishes. Marga’s input included fine-tuning the “experience” of visiting or working in the showroom.
The decor is a tapestry of serendipitous finds: the skull of an unfortunate carabao plucked from the roadside, resurrected as a work of art in the showroom; side tables made from petrified wood; seashells, bigger, Marga says, than any you’d find today, inherited from one of their grandmothers. Things were kept simple, Bea explains, to avoid distractions from the creative process.
All of these pieces “speak of age – they’re here because they have survived,” Bea says. Showcasing aged pieces serves as a reminder to take care of what you are given “for the next generation”.
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Also championed in the atelier is the work of other Filipino designers, such as Suma and Milo Naval, artisans who share the sisters’ passion for honouring natural materials.
Before Covid-19 restrictions, the building accommodated 17 people. Working at long tables arranged across the second floor, all would enjoy views of the lush courtyard garden envisaged by Pamela. This vista is also enjoyed from the ground-floor showroom, as well as from the multipurpose third floor. Removing internal walls to open up the space, and installing large windows around the perimeter, brought in abundant natural light, while louvred panels in the new angular roof let in breezes to temper the tropical climate.
A series of three gardens – on the rooftop, around the boundary and the courtyard – also help to enhance the indoor environment by mitigating the urban heat island effect.
Planting the courtyard, the most challenging of the three, was a “monumental task” involving three months of ground preparation, but seven years on, it has become a defining feature of the property.
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Bea’s transition from interior design to bespoke accessories happened organically, she says. After all, the family has been making fine jewellery for three generations.
Yet Marga sees a synergy in the elaborately bejewelled and embroidered collectable handbags, often fashioned around one humble or misshapen stone, which made her sibling the first Filipino accessories designer to have her work grace the cover of British Vogue (the September 2009 issue featured supermodel Kate Moss wearing a necklace by Bea).
“Something not necessarily perfect can be the central feature of the bag,” she says. “With interiors, Bea can start with a doorknob and create a room around it. The material is always her muse.”
Showroom
A long raw-edge table in acacia wood, the centrepiece of the showroom, is accessorised with bell-shaped candle holders – with acacia-wood bases hand-carved by artisans in the Benguet region of the Philippines – by Soumak (soumak.ph), ceramic vases from Artelano (artemano.com), seashells from the Valdes’ grandmother’s house, and handbags by Bea Valdes.
Showroom detail
The trio of tree trunks in petrified wood came from Casa Collective (instagram.com/casacollectivex). On the left is a church finial in painted wood, found in an antique shop, and beside it, an acacia slab fashioned into a table, brought from Pamela Valdes’ house. On the wall is the skull of a carabao, collected from the roadside, now decorated with fabric-covered wooden beads behind a veil of tulle. The wooden coffee table and large lamp came from OMO Furniture & Accessories by Milo Naval.
Showroom detail
Topping the stone table (from Gardini Picanti; gardinipicanti.com) are bell-shaped candleholders from Soumak. In the corner are a table and lamp that came from OMO Furniture & Accessories by Milo Naval (omofurniture.ph).
Main workshop
Above the main workshop on the second floor, louvres in the newly added roof allow breezes to permeate. This part of the renovation was done by DEQA Design Collaborative (ddc.studio).
Courtyard
The creation of the courtyard began with the removal of layers of cement, followed by three months of soil preparation. Landscaper Francis Gener, from King Louis Flowers & Plants, in Metro Manila (tel: +63 2 8929 4110), curated the plantings with a long-term view as to how they would mature. The scheme includes a local bamboo variety, a variegated money tree, fiddle-leaf fig trees and kalachuchi, a frangipani-like local flower.
Courtyard, looking in
The courtyard is shielded from the road by a double wall. Sliding doors on the ground floor, open corridors on the first floor and walls of windows on all three levels blur the lines between indoors and out. Relishing this garden oasis in urban Manila, Valdes’ team often take their breaks within or in view of the courtyard.
Bea and Marga Valdes
Bea (left) and Marga, partners in Beavaldes. The brand was established in 2004, with their mother, Pamela.
Tried + tested
Another of Pamela Valdes’ ideas, seen here in the second-floor workshop, was to create an archive of the team’s creations. A sample from every one of her daughter Bea Valdes’ collections is housed in stackable acrylic compartments of various sizes, on rollers so they can be moved around. The containers were designed by Pamela and custom made by Hong Kong jewellery display company Excel HK (excel-hk.com.hk).
