Brilliant and idealistic, the 27-year-old daughter of the world-renowned Palafox Associates founder makes good use of her lineage to make a difference. Real Estate World reports.
KAR MI Palafox is her dad’s daughter, in only the best ways. She displays the same passion for urban planning, the same energy, the same commitment. Moreover, given time, Karmi is bound, not only to carry on her father’s work, but to become a bigger mover and shaker, compared to him.
Even her father, the excellent architect and urban planner Felino A. Palafox, Jr., who founded the multi-disciplinary firm of architects, interior designers, engineers, landscape architects, and environmental and urban planners, admits this.
“She’s more interdisciplinary than me. While I’m trained in the study of the physical world— architecture, environmental planning, real estate development—Karmi brings with her added training in economics. She’s also more of the Global Pinoy, having been born abroad—I was working in Dubai when she was born— and having traveled to 30 countries.
Yes, the elder Palafox is right to expect a lot from his daughter: At her young age, Karmi has tucked under her belt two masters degrees from prestigious institutions: a Masters in Industrial Economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific, and one in Urban Planning, specializing in Urban Design, from the United Kingdom’s Oxford Brookes University. She also holds a Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Building a Business from the University of Oxford’s Business School.
While no architect, Karmi is well-versed with the physical science and geography courses. Boning up on these subjects on her own, she took the country’s Environmental Planning board exam last year (2008) and did not only pass it, but earned a rank of top 6.
If credentials mean nothing to you, consider the critical work she has already done: Not even 30 years old, Karmi has worked on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan for Aurora Province, Conceptual Development Plan for the City of Navotas, Alaminos and the Hundred Islands, Quirino Province, and Bacoor in Cavite, the Integrated Tourism Master Plan for Boracay Island, Carabao Island, Malay, Nabas and Bururanga, the Tourism Master Plan for Metro Iloilo and Guimaras, the Laguna Lakefront Development Plan, a proposed master plan for a socially-inclusive and energy-efficient Taguig City, master plans for properties in Sudan, India’s Punjab, and Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, plans for islands in Calamianes in Palawan, and dozens of other plans.
Life is surely looking up for this young urban and environmental planner.
Daddy’s Girl
STILL it wasn’t always a bed of roses for her. Like many children of leaders, geniuses, and talented movers, Karmi had to learn to live with her father’s constant absences, and the idiosyncrasies that come with high intelligence.
“Until now, my dad works a lot. At times he works 14-15-hour work days. Now that he is older, he has slowed down a bit, but there are still times when he would be out of the country or out of town. And when I was a young girl, that was a big deal for me. ‘Why doesn’t my dad see me on my birthday?’ – things like that.”
“And you know how kids compare? So there were times when I felt odd. My dad was very firm about his values, so we never had a huge house. Most of my classmates’ families (at De La Salle Zobel) lived in big houses. My dad always said that it’s better to invest in traveling. So we really traveled a lot from the time I was eight.
“And our leisure time was quite different compared to others. While other families would go to the malls, we’d drive around Laguna Lake or Taal Lake, or travel out of town and look at the churches.”
All this, however, made profound impressions on the bright young girl, so much so that while she is brilliant (this is no exaggeration) and qualified to do virtually anything under the sun, she eventually chose urban planning.
“Traveling a lot with my family, I learned to appreciate urban planning… like there is this town in Luzon (I think Cuenca) where the houses aren’t aligned with the street—they’re tilted a bit to shade themselves from the heat of the noonday sun, and things like that… all impressed me.
“But in high school, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. My choices for a college course include - at UP (University of the Philippines), I chose (and passed into) Dentistry. At La Salle, I chose Accounting. I even considered law school for a while… So my interests were really diverse.
“I decided to take up Economics in UA&P. At around this time, we also transferred to Rockwell, after living in the suburbs (Alabang) for 15 years. So, while I was learning about Mixed-Use Developments from my dad —which was quite a new concept then—we also lived in one. It was only natural that I started relating urban planning and economics.” Rockwell Center is a 15.5-hectare upscale, mixed-used development in Makati, one of the country’s first.
“We stayed at the 35th floor of a condo, as well, so I got a good view of Metro Manila, and I’d see that everyday. So that also inspired me to go, eventually, into urban planning.”
Environment Shapes People
SUCH experiences have led Karmi to realize and appreciate the power environments have over human psyches, well-being, relationships, interactions, and the power the environment has over the economic and political aspects of society, as well.
Thus, one of her favorite sayings is, “while people shape the environment, the environment shapes them as well.”
Such thoughts have led Karmi to her calling: “So I’d like to think that, instead of being cynical, if we could plan and design the environment properly, Filipinos will be conditioned by their environment.”
Like most people who think of their work as vocations, the young Palafox can be fiercely passionate about her ideals, and her stand for the environment.
“Usually, our clients for master plans are developers or landowners who come to us and say, ‘here is a piece of land, what’s the best deal for it? Here’s the slope, what would be the magnet land use? The landmark structure or building? Understandably many developers really just want to get back their value for the land. Sadly, there’s also a tendency not to respect the natural topography of the area or make use of available local resources.”
“So when we look at the economic, political, social and environment factors, and of course, what would sell—for me, I’d like to instill in our firm a strong bias for the environment.
“That’s what I really appreciate about my UK training—that we’re very head-on about planning for the environment.”
One notable case is the Palafox project in Boracay—the Integrated Tourism Master Plan for Boracay Island, Carabao Island, Malay, Nabas and Bururanga, she adds.
“Here, the balance with the environment really has to come in,” she says. In this worldfamous beach resort, we’re really beginning to see the pressure on the environment, she notes.
“What’s difficult about this project is that several government agencies and private entities have their own plan, of course everyone would like to take part in Boracay.
And, while everyone’s talking about the environment, no one is really putting their money into it… a lot of property owners didn’t even follow the basic setback—which is supposed to be at least 25m from the mean high water mark on the shore…”
Indeed, being outspoken, firm and tough, are things that make Karmi standout from her “nicer” father. The underlying sense of idealism and purpose, however, is inherited.
Palafox Associates, after all, is what the senior Palafox likes to call a Triple E rated company. “If there’s corruption in a project, we report it and walk away,” Felino Palafox Jr. says
firmly. This has been quite a challenge for the firm, costing it at least a third of its contracts.
“We don’t accept at least 30 percent of contracts because of corruption, and we’ve been this way from our very first project, which we got when I was 22 years old,” he says.
“Because, apart from creativity and innovation, our core values also include honesty and integrity, professionalism and spirituality,” he says proudly.
Our firm is a triple E bottomline company—we look after the environment, the economy and even social equity. We include the poor also,” he notes.
The Palafoxes are also ‘notorious’ for valuing knowledge above material gain. The firm has a library collection of architecture, planning, and design books and computer programs worth millions.
“People ask, how come you don’t have a building? I tell them, we invest in knowledge,” the elder Palafox says.
At Palafox, knowledge is so much valued, that, people who make mistakes are not encouraged to hide it, but to record it in a log, “Lessons Learned From Mistakes Made.” Of course, best practices are also recorded, so that they can be shared and replicated.
Learning to Leveraging It
AS REBELLION is the nature of the young, it took some time before Karmi realized that she was destined to carry on her father’s work. First, she had to find herself. Traveling a lot during and after college gave her the independence she needed to become what she is today. Karmi has visited 30 countries, lived in England by herself, explored cities such as London, Boston and Paris by herself, and backpacked around Italy..
While completing her postgraduate course in Urban Planning in the UK, she also worked two part-time jobs and represented her class in the university student council. All these, only to come home, take up her father’s work.
Today, Karmi enjoys her work immensely, and is so involved with it that she doesn’t even
have the time to have a love interest. Often, such talk even annoys her. “One of the things that really disappoints me is not being taken seriously. For instance, in the thick of an important discussion over a master plan, instead of asking more about it, a man I’m discussing with will ask me “Are you seeing someone?”
“So yes, it’s still a man’s world.” She sighs. Smart as she is, however, Karmi has learned to turn this—and other obstacles—to her advantage: “But then, because I’m different (i.e, a woman) people in the industry are bound to listen to me. Sometimes, simply because I’m a woman, even middle-aged and important men will have to ask me– maybe out of courtesy, at first—‘what do you think?’ Then this gives me a chance to push for what I believe in.”
“And since Filipino culture involves being diplomatic, gentlemanly and all, what my dad can’t say, I can,” she notes wryly. “Because my dad’s too nice, I have learned to be tough. Well, not from day one, but yes, since it’s a man’s world, I couldn’t give myself the luxury to cry.”
“And I am enjoying my work very much now. I’ve thought about it: if I had pursued work abroad, I’d be limited to apprehending developers—asking some person why he had built something a certain way. Whereas here, I have the opportunity to help create communities and new townships.”
“If I stayed abroad, I wouldn’t be able to make a contribution. I’d be reduced to complaining, ‘our environment is degrading, Metro Manila is so unplanned’…and all that… “Early on, it was a tough decision to stay. When I went into planning, people would say, ‘oh, you have big shoes to fill!’ So, for a while, I was in denial about continuing in the footsteps of my father. Also, I very much enjoyed the independence of living abroad.
“And up to now, I still get job offers—like as a planning manager of an eco-island near Bali, or as urban planner/urban designer in the Middle East and UK. It’s so frustrating to get those offers from outside the Philippines! “But I’ve decided to stay. Anywhere else, I’d just be complaining from the stands. Here, I can make a difference.
“Then, when I really thought about it, I realized that it was actually an opportunity—everything I had. Because, as they say, young people are so idealistic.
“So now, when people say I have big shoes to fill, I just think to myself, ‘oh I’ll wear higher heels…’” she says, laughing.
“And even my lineage is a lucky thing, at the end of the day. Because otherwise, if I was not my dad’s daughter, when I sit with top developers, taipans, senators and mayors, there’s no way I can mention my ideals. But because I am my father’s daughter, I can say, ‘ok, I see where you’re coming from, but on the other hand…’ Being a Palafox is a foot in the door.”
KARMI is lucky, indeed. But so is the country, and so are we all.
The United Nations predicts that by next year, 2010, more than half, or 51.3 percent, of the world’s population would be living in cities. But because of current inequalities and development paths, the world is fast becoming a Planet of Slums, warns Mike Davis, American scholar, social commentator, urban theorist, historian, and political activist.
Even today, close to half of all Filipinos live in some of these abject communities. It could get worse. Or it could get better. Much depends on what we do in the next few years.
Against such backdrop, people like Karmi—idealistic, competent, driven, ambitious, and committed to stay in the country—are nothing less than heaven sent. ReW
