The houses that sugar built  

Conceived by London-based writer, Gina Consing McAdam and her co-author, Siobhan Doran, who specializes in architectural photography, the inspiration for the book was sparked when the latter noted a framed photograph in Gina’s London abode of her Philippine ancestral home, the Yusay-Consing ancestral house in Molo, Iloilo. Popularly known as the “Molo Mansion,” the house’s elegant, curved façade, with its neo-Palladian features uniquely fused with other Western architectural elements and framed by tropical greenery (read: coconut trees), combined to make quite an arresting image that piqued Siobhan’s curiosity. Without any historical or architectural context, except perhaps a visual hint of colonial influence, the photograph seemed to convey that a bit of Europe had unexpectedly landed in a tropical country.

Today, the Molo Mansion is owned by the SM Group, who have adaptively reused the house as the venue for their Kultura shop, which features Filipino goods and specialty gifts. 

Siobhan wondered if there were any more like it, and there were—thus was born the idea for a book about these magnificent ancestral homes. Gina and Siobhan, together with architectural historian Ian McDonald and book designer Paula Hickey, had previously worked on a book about London’s grand Lanesborough Hotel in Knightsbridge. Reprising their roles in the Lanesborough publication, each brought an essential element to the production of Houses that Sugar Built, recently published by Oro Editions, a prestigious California-based architecture and design publishing house, and now available in the Philippines.

A preface by Gina is essential reading, as it chronicles her own experience as a descendant of sugar wealth while providing a capsule history of the sugar industry in the Philippines, which was at its height from the end of the 1890s until the 1930s, enjoying a revival after World War II until its decline in the 1970s due to political reasons and a drop in the global demand for sugar. The wealth it engendered enabled its beneficiaries to enjoy and interpret its trappings in various forms such as travel abroad, fine clothing, sophisticated culinary appreciation, and the building of grand, aspirational family homes.

Each of the 23 ancestral homes featured in the book is afforded its own short chapter, which tells the tale of the house and its inhabitants, in both pictures and words. An architectural description of each house is woven into the stories of the current generation of owners, often in their own words, as gleaned from extensive interviews by Gina. A few of the original interviewees from four years ago have passed away, making their recorded words and memories even more precious today. The stunning photographs by Siobhan capture the essence of the homes with her keen and disciplined eye for balanced composition, unusual vignettes, and the consistently natural lighting she sought. 

Even before the book was published, Siobhan garnered honors for several of the photos, as well as the accolade of Architectural Photographer of the Year in the 2023 Prix de la Photographie Paris (PX3). Additionally, one of her house interior photos was accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art’s 2023 Summer Exhibition in London.

The architectural overview written by Ian McDonald at the end of the book gives global context to the plethora of architectural styles evident in the homes featured in Houses that Sugar Built. There is nothing aesthetically uniform about them: elements of Beaux Arts eclecticism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Philippine bahay na bato features abound; often personally interpreted and carried out by the original owners themselves together with the master builders (often engineers rather than architects) of the houses. 

As the title succinctly states, it is sugar—specifically the wealth it brought about through its cultivation, processing, and trading—that is the unseen, unifying element behind these grand homes. This elegantly produced publication has definitively identified, comprehensively recorded and ultimately, successfully argued for this pioneering interpretation of a type of commodity-driven architecture in the Philippines.