EMERGING VOICE
Toronto, Canada
Balikbayan: Home Away From Home
EMERGING VOICE
Toronto, Canada
Balikbayan: Home Away From Home
Project Team
Julia Buli-e
163 Views
“Balikbayan” housing celebrates cultural identity in Toronto’s Little Manila. Addressing unaffordable, inflexible housing for Filipino immigrants, it reimagines accessible homes, adapting the traditional compound into a mid-rise fostering belonging and community resilience.
Overview
Balikbayan will serve as a cultural centre for Filipino immigrants seeking placemaking and investment in their heritage. The proposal creates meaningful cultural spaces inspired by traditional Filipino vernacular architecture, offering the community a place to feel at home while fostering collective identity. Dedicated spaces support cultural growth, community development, and local business opportunities. The project also includes an affordable housing complex based on a limited equity cooperative model to support incoming domestic workers through Toronto’s enhanced caregiver pilot programs announced in early 2024.
This model promotes agency, shared ownership, and independence for newcomers and individuals in transition, while strengthening ties to community networks and cultural support systems in their new home.
Institution
University of Toronto
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design
Masters of Architecture
Additional Team Members
Karen Kubey
Community Engagement
Surveys were conducted, influenced by Germane Barnes and his work Spectrum of Blackness, to explore how culture operates within Filipino homes. Responses informed unit layouts across separate blocks, creating adequate spaces, displayed as a dowel house with suspended patchwork textile.
Partners
The partners include local businesses, Filipino community groups and leaders.
