IN WHAT could be loosely described as a ?Nayong Pilipino scenario,? 62 graduating students of the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID) will be taking visitors on a virtual tour of the entire archipelago through 17 actual living spaces that mirror elements inspired by the country?s various indigenous communities.

Dubbed as ?Kontempo Pilipino,? the month-long exhibit opens Friday at Eastwood City?s Athena Building in Libis, Quezon City. The annual show, now on its 42nd year, highlights real furniture and accent pieces within the context of simulated spaces.

As in years past, the current edition doubles as the students? thesis as well as a gauge of their talent and drawing power as future practitioners.

But unlike Nayong Pilipino, this exercise is not a literal interpretation of how certain traditional groups like the Ivatans, Ifugaos, Mangyans, Ati-Atihans and Maranaos live. The students? collective efforts certainly go beyond the visual.

Rather, it?s more of a brave albeit enlightened attempt to distill certain elements of the indigenous groups? respective lifestyles and cultures and interpret them in ways that would appeal to contemporary audiences. Students worked anywhere from groups of three to six people. Big groups were given bigger spaces to work on.

Trooping to, say, Batanes up north or Tawi-Tawi down south to do research was out of the question. Apart from being pressed for time, each group had to solicit either cash or materials from various sponsors. Otherwise, they would have to foot the entire bill of constructing and piecing together a showcase amounting anywhere from P200,000-P300,000.

Thanks to PSID advisers and extensive information provided by consultants from the National Commission for Culture and Arts, not a few students managed to produce visually pleasing and practical showcases that provide both obvious and subtle references of their sources of inspiration.

Spaces include anywhere from living rooms to lanais, work areas to bedrooms and kitchens to bathrooms. Majority of the exhibits feature two sections of the house further adding to their challenge of seamlessly marrying a pair of distinct components together.

?Their collaboration with NCCA, which provided them with research materials, was quite fruitful,? says interior designer Jie Pambid, PSID?s director for external affairs. ?There was an initial problem when NCCA thought they were doing traditional Filipino designs.?

Evolving designs

Nothing wrong with that, but Pambid and his colleagues, including PSID faculty members and exhibit advisers Nicky Jardenil, Leo Almeria and Edwin Enriquez, felt that students had to go beyond the traditional bahay-kubo, which, incidentally, is a ubiquitous feature in almost every Filipino tribal group, if Philippine design is to continue to evolve and remain relevant.

?The challenge from the start was to produce something inspired by an indigenous group,? says Pambid.

?Once the students rendered, explained and justified their designs, NCCA immediately saw the connection between the designs and how they evolved.?

The first booth (?Tan-Awan?), for instance, paid homage to the Ibaloi, an indigenous group from Northern Luzon known for, among other things, weaving traditional baskets and fabrics.

In lieu of incorporating woven baskets to their showcase, the group makes use of woven furniture and accent pieces with either modern or adopted shapes far removed from what?s considered traditional.

There was no sign of the community?s red, black and white fabrics in the form of curtains and table runners. That would have been too easy and, yes, literal. Instead, the colors are mirrored on the modern kitchen?s backsplash.

?Our choice of red for kitchen cabinets goes beyond the common practice of incorporating a bold color as accent,? said Raymond Lee. ?Ibalois are also known as fighters and there?s no better color than red to represent this trait.?

A neighboring booth (?Vituhen?) drew inspiration from Ivatans? fondness for filigreed jewelry by embellishing an architectural mirror behind the bar with swirling patterns rendered in gold powder.

The same elements are echoed using a different, more permanent medium on the ceiling. Made from Swarovski crystals, lighting fixtures were inspired by Batanes? clear, star-studded nighttime sky.

Elements from the sea are confined to a number of streamlined accent pieces on the bar and coffee table, while a faux stone element?actually made of sculpted and painted Styrofoam?inspired by the people?s sturdy, nearly windowless houses divide the living room from the bar.

Indeed, apart from the indigenous people?s wares, livelihoods and customs, various topographies they move around in also became sources of inspiration. Students behind the 16th booth (?Gu?yangan?), for instance, played up the Manobo?s verdant environment by coming up with a rather unusual wall and ceiling treatment supposedly representing a lush canopy of trees in the bedroom.

Not to be outdone, students responsible for the 17th booth (?Paradiso?) produced a lanai with what looked like overhead swags of curtain, which are actually layers of stained, unevenly cut plywood boards that represent the Sama Dilaut?s wavy, seaside environment.

The trio behind the 13th booth (?Tammang Boh?) followed a similar tack. But this time, they used a series of textured, concrete and sloping walls by the living room to symbolize the Jama Mapun?s affinity to the sea.

?I guess one of the challenges all of us encountered while doing research was having to sift through a wealth of ideas,? said Rina Radan, a member of the second group.

?Coming up with something cohesive wasn?t easy. Not when you have several creative and highly opinionated people, each with ideas of her own, working together as a team.?