September 24, 2020. Staying sustainable during this unprecedented condition of COVID-19 remakes the role of educational environments at SKIA College and Islamic Academy co-location campuses.
Administrator Lourdes Veloso-Mastura in an exclusive interview has unveiled an innovative plan for Sultan Kudarat Islamic Academy’s school improvement projects. The journey undertaken by the Islamic Academy that began as extension program for science students in a spare space has come a long way in three decades.
A newly renovated SKIA Auditorium now adds gathering spaces, expanding “commons” with bleachers that will increase full seating capacity from 400 to 1200. The stage as spatial organizing element incorporates natural light without compromising energy efficiency and using solar light panels.
According to SKIA President & CEO Atty. Datu Michael O. Mastura, last March 2019 the leadership of SKIA College demonstrated the determination behind its rise “by introducing a dramatic, new signature building façade that would be at home with its wetland surroundings.”
“One key to our co-location campus’s appeal is a river runs through it,” she says it, with a pointing finger towards the Rio Grande de Mindanao estuary. The learner is linked to the physical environment. Traditionally decorated boats called “Ginakit” form a flotilla on the Pulangi. “So we use nature’s system to renovate for sustainable design taking advantage of physical distance.”
Dean Mastura who holds an MA in Teacher Education degree is not a professional architect but collects architectural digest for design resource. Speaking of this approach, she sees it as a water district official, yet ends quoting the founders and members of the board. “Our ambition has been to open access to extension of network of utility commons and drainage infrastructures that reduce risk from the typhoon runoffs”, said Chairman Emeritus Datu Ahmad Tucao O. Mastura and Vice-Chairman Datu Armando T. Mastura.
