Project DUO Alumni Series No. 3 features an interesting set of alumni pairs with distinctly diverse professional backgrounds: architecture, culinary arts, green energy, and culture. This 3rd collection of featured alumni is a continuing testimony to the myriad yet distinct contributions of our alumni to nation-building and social transformation. Project DUO is a multimedia campaign initiated by La Salle Green Hills High School and conceptualized by De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.
EMMANUEL “MANNY” A. MIÑANA
Batch HS ’79 and GS ‘76
For the past 25 years, Emmanuel A Miñana, through his eponymous architecture and interior design firm, Emmanuel A. Miñana & Associates, Architects (EAMA) has designed private residences for a number of notable Filipinos such as: Eugenio Lopez III, Bienvenido Tantoco, Jr., Jose Concepcion III, Lauro Leviste Jr., Francisco Bayot Jr., Antonio Meer, Antonio Lagdameo Jr., Stephen CuUnjieng, Christian Gonzalez, Antonio Go, Teodoro Limcaoco, Wilson Sy, Teresita Sy-Coson, Rafael Consing and Cezar Consing among others.
He was also invited to design the private residence of H.E. Prince T.A. Raman of Malaysia. In 1996, EAMA designed the Presidential Villas for the APEC Summit held in Subic Bay. Aside from designing residences, EAMA has also designed office interiors for select corporations in Manila: Accenture, Cemex, TAO Corporation, Banco Santander, Philippine Seven Corporation, Madrigal and Company, Avon, Korea Telecom, The Philippine Stock Exchange, Lopez Sugar Corporation, among others.
At present, EAMA is working on a number of private residences as well as hospitality projects such as the proposed Sta. Elena Resort and Country Club in Cabuyao, Laguna, and an undisclosed upscale wellness resort in Batangas.
In 2014, he was the first Filipino Architect to be shortlisted in the World Architecture Festival in Singapore for his project, Villa Marina, a 30,000 sq.ft. private residence in Sta. Elena. In 2015, he was awarded National Winner for Excellence in Philippine Architecture reflecting East Asian Design given by the National Commission for Culture and Arts.
His works have been featured in a number of international coffee table books on Design and Architecture such as: Contemporary Dream Houses in the Philippines, Tropical Living, by Elizabeth Reyes and Periplus Publishing, 2000; 25 Tropical Houses in the Philippines, by Elizabeth Reyes and Periplus Publishing, 2005; The Tropical House Cutting Edge Design in the Philippines by Elizabeth Reyes and Tuttle Publishing, 2009; Contemporary Houses in the Philippines by Robert Powell and Talesmian Publishing, 2015.
Architect Miñana is a trustee of the College of St. Benilde La Salle and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. He is also a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. In 2014, he co-chaired and organized Voices for Visayas, a one-night benefit concert for the victims of typhoon Yolanda, featuring 40 of the Philippines top performers. Miñana helped raise 18 Million Pesos and built over 100 resettlement homes in the Visayas through Gawad Kalinga and Habitat for Humanity.
Miñana is a gifted graphologist, a signature analyst, and has helped several business and government leaders, individuals, couples and families, help them find themselves through self-knowledge. In 2011, to commemorate our national hero’s 150th Anniversary, Miñana gave a lecture on Jose Rizal’s signatures at the Yuchengco Museum.
Miñana received his BArch from the University of the Philippines in Diliman and attended a number of Professional Programs from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.