Tanaw: The Mañosa Legacy Recast for the Contemporary Collector

Francisco “Bobby” Mañosa has always existed in a category apart, where architecture intersects seamlessly with cultural authorship. That legacy has expanded with a silent auction of his sculptures, Tanaw, hosted online by Leon Gallery until December 13, 2025, revealing a body of work that speaks as much to his design philosophy as it does to the forms and structures he reimagined. Tanaw offers collectors a rare opportunity to acquire these archival pieces—objects that function as both aesthetic artifact and philosophical extension of Mañosa’s own worldview.

Launched by the Tukod Foundation, the fundraiser introduces the first-ever public auction of rare Bobby Mañosa sculptures. These unearthed works are drawn from the National Artist’s private archives and newly reframed for today’s discerning collectors.

When we think of Mañosa’s name, we associate it with a distinctly Filipino architectural vision that elevated the vernacular all the while honoring indigenous materials. His work approached the built environment as an extension of climate, culture, and community in many ways. Yet beyond his celebrated buildings lies a lesser-seen, deeply evocative lineage.

His pioneering “Bobi Toys” environmental series from the 1970s, for instance, reconfigured play as a sort of cultural education, earning a Good Design Award from the Design Center of the Philippines. It would be remembered as one of the earliest Filipino product lines rooted in identity and environmental consciousness. These sculptural pieces now emerge as refined echoes of that same ideation.

Proceeds will directly support Bayay Halian, a climate-resilient school and creative space on Halian Island, situated between Dinagat and Siargao within the country’s largest protected seascape, SIPLAS.

Bayay Halian is envisioned as a multifunctional space, covering a school, community kitchen, and creative sanctuary dedicated to regenerating island traditions through craft, cuisine, and environmental education. Built in response to the lasting impacts of Typhoon Odette, the project addresses the visible failures of recent infrastructure, where leaks, mold, and premature deterioration have already compromised newly constructed facilities. What Bayay Halian proposes instead is a model of architecture designed in careful dialogue with climate.

For years, students studied in makeshift classrooms or outdoors. Yet even under these conditions, they earned regional recognition in storytelling competitions, underscoring a quiet resilience that Bayay Halian now seeks to support with permanence and dignity.

The project brings together emerging designers Bea Rodrigues, Bea Carague, and Janelle Gan under the mentorship of Arch. Angelo Mañosa and Arch. Dong Ping Wong of New York’s Food Architects, as part of The World Around’s Young Climate Prize. An intimate supper club in collaboration with TOYO complements the auction, further reinforcing the event’s dialogue between design and culture.

Under the leadership of Isabella Tanjutco, Mañosa’s granddaughter and President of the Board, the Tukod Foundation continues its commitment to archipelagic creativity through conscious placemaking. Here, legacy is actively shaped, channeling Mañosa’s vision into a future where design operates as both cultural memory and civic responsibility.

For more information, go to https://leon-gallery.com/auctions. More about Tukod Foundation here.