The Mactan Cebu International Airport managed to beat Singapore’s Changi Airport at the World Architectural Awards for its very confident yet very modest design.
With its timber arches, Mactan Cebu International Airport Terminal 2 won the World Architecture Award’s Completed Buildings-Transport category.
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The Cebu airport defeated Jewel Changi, which boasts the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.
Cebu, Mactan Terminal 2 features wooden arches that look like an inverted boat hull and a wave-shaped roof that evokes a tropical resort feel.
Officials from the award-giving body said that the airport design has a certain maturity, which means “you know what you’re doing, and yet you’re not showing off.”
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The award-giving body said that Jewel Changi has spent $1.25 billion which the judges say is not an example of ‘economy manufacturing’.
“The comment of the jury at our presentation is that they feel our building from Cebu is very confident yet very modest,” the design body told ABS-CBN.
World-renowned Cebuano furniture-maker Kenneth Cobonpue and Filipino designer Budji Layug helped conceptualize the terminal.
