Project Title & Location
SITE DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR THE BALARA RESERVATION
Quezon City

Client
METROPOLITAN WATERWORKS AND SEWAGE SYSTEM
Manila

Project Completion
1978

Associated Firms
Urban Designers Associates, Inc.

Services Provided
- Environmental Analysis
- Site Development Planning
- Physical Inventory
- Imaging
- Architectural Programming

The main water treatment works of Metropolitan Manila's water supply is located at the Balara Reservation in Quezon City. It has an area of 129 hectares. To properly provide sufficient planning guidelines and analytical procedures for the construction of the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewage System Headquarters at Balara, a site development planning is deemed essential in optimizing land allocations at the reservation.

The area accommodates co-mingling of filtration works, residential, institutional and recreational uses in an organized whole. However, not all the existing conditions are desirable in terms of land use compatibility and ecological characteristics. Nevertheless, the development plan is based on a strategy of making Balara a mixed-use development area in a naturally landscaped environment.

The strategy is based on the following realities:

- MWSS must rely on its resources in making the reservation a catalyst for a park system of the city.
- MWSS has to anticipate the impact of the watersheds it holds on the urbanization of Metropolitan Manila.

In implementing projects in the reservation, significant activity settings are used as points of interactions. These are the office complex, the filtration processing area, and the residential/recreational areas. The office complex for the headquarters of the MWSS covers an area of 27,600 square meters not including 13,000 square meters for operations with 4,850 square meters for finance and administration.