Even when buying a townhouse or residential condominium, customers these days expect so much more from a brand. Chief among these expectations, particularly among high-end buyers, is that spaces have a certain unique character they can relate to or a strong “sense of place.” This is according to Digno “Ding” Asuncion, who together with wife Isabel, heads Asuncion-Berenguer, Inc. (ABI), a leading architectural and interior design firm.

Thus, when ABI drew plans for a boutique 280-unit townhouse development by Alveo Land in Pasig City, the firm shied away from safe-and-tested design solutions. It chose a contemporary theme focused on the cubiform for the townhomes. For the centerpiece of the community, the clubhouse, Ding designed an irregular L-shaped layout with window recesses that play on irregular angles.

“Many people believe symmetry is beauty. In Ametta Place, we wanted to show that asymmetry can also be attractive,” explained the architect. After working with international architectural firms in Hong Kong, he set-up his own design office doing design work in Guangzhou and Shanghai and in the colony at the height of the construction boom in the ‘90s.

Assymetry is also very evident in a four-level clubhouse for the Solinea Condominium Resort in Cebu also being drawn up by ABI. The clubhouse’s layout and facades likewise shy away from right angles.

The architect, who paints abstracts in mixed media and creates metal sculptures to de-stress, observes that more upper-end real estate clients are travelling these days and getting exposed to unconventional architecture that make a design statement.

Another ABI project that breaks the monotony of traveling on the North Expressway is an all-white Shell station Food Hub along the North Luzon Expressway with a roof that seems to form a wave. Inside, the structure breaks away from the standard flat ceiling and follows the curves of the roof allowing the visitor to experience that strong sense of place consistent with the works of ABI.

Asuncion conceptualized that Shell station design inspired by a handkerchief waving in the wind: “We want people to stop and think when they see our work. We enjoy deconstructing simple shapes and putting them back together in a unique way.”

To keep his creativity flowing, Ding dabbles in the fine arts. He works with mixed media on canvas and has a marked preference for acrylic and charcoal. His garden in the Quezon City home he shares with Isabel and their three children displays his metal sculptures. Nevertheless, he does not exhibit or sell his works as a rule.

A descendant of Justiniano Asuncion or “Kapitan Ting,” one of the leading Filipino painters of the 19th century, Ding was once a UP Fine Arts student. On his second year, he shifted to architecture and moved to UST because it allowed him to “work on a more artistic and purposeful scale beyond that which a visual artist would normally encounter.”

In 2013, another ABI-designed structure in Bonifacio Global City is bound to make passersby pause and think.

To maximize visual impact, the mid-rise headquarters of Alveo Land is composed basically of two attached rectangular masses, with one significantly smaller than the other. Its glass wall exteriors boldly display solid diagonal panels which continue beyond the roofline.