Architecture

The facade of the Nakpil-Bautista home unchanged since 1914.

Bahay Nakpil-Bautista, an architecturally significant historical Philippine site, stands at the heart of Quiapo, Manila on a colonial era street now named after its famous resident, Dr. Ariston Bautista, who built this house with his wife Petrona Nakpil in 1914 on the site of a previous Nakpil house. Petrona’s two brothers, Julio and Ramon, also lived here.
Viennese Secession furniture that inspired the cut-outs and grills used to as accents.

Now a unique center of Philippine culture and history located in Quiapo, it was designed in the traditional “wood-and-stone” style (bahay na bato at kahoy) to resist earthquakes – with an upper storey made of wood built over a stone foundation.

Large windows, high ceilings, sliding window panels, and geometric grillwork and cut-outs typify this architectural masterpiece by Arcadio Arellano.
Grillwork adorning the windows of Bahay Nakpil-Bautista.

Grillwork over lower windows with sliding shutters is inspired by the furniture that once occupied Bahay Nakpil-Bautista.