What will vintage look like in the future?

 

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Dr. Vicki Belo: ‘I had two dreams when I started’

“In the future, what will vintage look like?”

The question provokes the imagination. Really, what will be considered retro in the future?

That was the question Dr. Hayden Kho posed to design and visual artist Budji Layug when Budji was tapped by Belo Medical Clinic to design Belo NEXA at One Ayala, Makati. Dr. Kho wanted a groundbreaking space with a global appeal to help make the Philippines a medical tourism destination; this goes beyond the Belo Medical Group being the pioneer in the esthetic industry in the Philippines.

The answer to “what is vintage in the future” can now be experienced at Belo NEXA, the newest Belo clinic that raises the bar in interior design, space planning, and esthetic and surgery center. The design creates the environment for the state-of-the-art surgery facilities or operation theater. It is a two-story space channeling the future yet designed to be a classic—ironic actually—and it is drawing the curiosity of even the retail executives who come to check it out.

From the outside, the clinic blends in with the commercial environment, but when you step inside, you are transported to a minimalist setting that instantly cleans up your mind, yet grabs your eye with its mammoth digital art that is an outburst of color. With its cathedral ceiling, the cavernous space envelops you, yet you don’t feel gobbled up or overwhelmed. Why? Because up above is the eye-catching whimsy of Kenneth Cobonpue colorful mobiles, and so inviting are the organic-shaped Budji Layug furniture clusters.

The clinic that’s meant to be the cathedral of the future becomes a cozy cocoon.

Dr. Kho describes the intention: “Budji hasn’t created anything like it. Metal, robot, stone—the scenario of the future can be very cold. So when the future comes, what will us humans be looking for? Warmth… nature…like the beach.

“What will be retro in the future, no peg….nothing like it….today, retro is a jukebox, it has charm now that it is 2024. Now imagine what this space will be in, say, 2050, what will retro look like. It shouldn’t be literally Asian.”

Dr. Kho echoes the vision set by Dr. Vicki Belo herself, the woman who defined the beauty and esthetic industry in the Philippines, who, by combining her medical acuity with marketing savvy, drove Filipino women and men to exploring skin care/cosmetic surgery/esthetic treatment, and the woman who is his wife: “We want to communicate the future of beauty and medical esthetics by providing even treatments not available in Asia, in this design-forward environment.” (Belo NEXA even has a robot “barista” in the lobby, which serves patients and visitors as they wait.)

Dr. Vicki Belo, who admits to yielding the front seat to both Dr. Kho and Budji in the design of Belo NEXA, sums it up for TheDiarist.ph: “I had two dreams when I started—1) One was to make people more confident and happy by making them more gorgeous. I think I have achieved that. 2) To make our clinic a beauty destination for tourists. This, I haven’t achieved, but I’m still trying. So we built this clinic that would wow them and hopefully make them feel safe to do the procedures right here in Metro Manila.”

Dr. Belo has built the largest esthetic center chain in the country, and is considered the industry pioneer. Now that everybody wants to have a piece of the pie, so to speak, Dr. Kho, now the Belo Medical Clinic managing director, wants the pioneering establishment to be a cut above the rest. “The goal is to raise the bar to be at par with the global industry.”

Even Budji has that end-goal in mind in designing the two-story, 735sqm space situated in a commercial center. He tells TheDiarist.ph: “Hayden set the direction for a futuristic vibe. For me it can be modern, a bit techno, digital art, sculpture. But if we make it ‘Space Age,’ using that standard term for futuristic, the design might get dated or out of style, very cold.”

Budji Layug propagated the tropical modern design that has been much copied to this day. This project showcases the Budji Layug design genius that’s anchored on keen intuition and informed sensibility, on the logic and function of space, on his sense of aesthetics molded by a lifelong exposure to and immersion in design, and on a sophisticated taste honed through travel and living abroad.

He explains, “I wanted to keep the organic feel even in this future-centric vibe, the classic that doesn’t age, yet fresh, modern, new. Not decorative but sophisticated, that feeling of lightness….to create space that enhances the guest’s sense of well-being, how space can make you feel good while keeping that sense of wonder. Not contrived or forced; almost feels spontaneous in creating space.”

More important, Belo NEXA doesn’t have the antiseptic look of a clinic or medical center. Blending stone, glass, metal, “wood,” with digital art and boucle-covered furniture in a warm, inviting setting is a design feat.

Dr. Kho and Budji agreed that Belo NEXA shouldn’t be thematic nor pegged on a single look. Rather, it should be a visual play. And that is the Budji trademark—all these decades, his design identity has defied categorization. His exploration of space and design continues to evolve—much like the Belo Medical Clinic itself, a game changer that is ahead in exploring and offering treatments, procedures and technology.  Belo NEXA was a term the clinic coined to denote “next generation.”

How does a clinic space turn into a visual play and a safe, warm cocoon?

NEUTRAL CALMS
The color is neutral, so it is not busy but calming. It is a blend of grey and beige (“grenge’). Neutral colors don’t get dated. The wall is light “wood” grain film texture or interior film, non-porous unlike real wood. It has texture. The wood grain film texture is used throughout Belo NEXA. “I am able to show shapes and patterns not possible with normal wood, and even to create corner curves,” Budji says.

KENNETH COBONPUE MOBILES

Budji asked world-renowned designer Kenneth Cobonpue to create a sculpture of mobiles suspended from the ceiling, and which moves with the breeze or light air. “I wanted the colors of the sea, so that the mobiles become one with digital art, one with the organic modern curves. I needed something hanging from the very high ceiling,” Budji explains.

The ceiling installation is made of mesh wire, its hues echoing the moving avalanche of “balls” of the digital art mural.

Made for Belo NEXA, this LED feature must be the largest digital art used in interior design in the country. “I wanted to create movement in this minimalist setting,” says Budji.

GLASS WALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY

The lobby gives a sense of transparency with its back-lit walls of frosted glass. No solid walls.  “I wanted a play on glass—fluted glass on one side, frosted, subtle blending,” says Budji.

One treatment room on the second level, which overlooks the lobby, has a glass wall so that the patient gets a view of the lobby.

BUDJI’S NEW FURNITURE LINE—AWAY FROM BAMBOO

Budji, whose trailblazing bamboo furniture gained world acceptance in the ‘70s and became iconic when it was showcased at Bloomingdales, is relaunching his furniture line but only for select clientele. Unveiled at Belo NEXA, it can’t be no farther from the bamboo and the indigenous style. It is not made of wood.  The furniture clustered at the lobby mimics stones and boulders, in round, organic shapes, in warm grey, beige, off white. Instead of hard wood, the furniture is covered in boucle fabric, its woven texture and finish providing the warmth and human touch.  “The times have moved on, I’m treating furniture not just as craft,” Budji hints at his direction in furniture design for the new millennium.

PRIMITIVE ‘STONE SLAB’ COUNTERS AND FUTURISTIC ‘BARISTA’

The lobby counters appear like huge slabs of stone–a hark-back to the primitive age. These are actually custom-designed acrylic that has been fabricated off site. In off white and grey, they have rounded corners, curved surfaces, are spherical in shape. “Everything in this clinic has the soft look, so I opted for curves, roundness. Not sharp or stark,” explains Budji.

A counterpoint to that primitive touch is the robot “barista”—a nod to the future. It is programmed to do award-winning blends from South Korea, where coffee or café culture is thriving, especially among the young. (What comes to mind is the Dalgona coffee which Korean star Jung Ilwoo adopted from his Macau trip and made popular in Seoul.)

NO CURTAINS, JUST GLASS LOUVERS

Instead of curtains, frosted glass slats are used to provide privacy. They are set at different angles to reveal subtly different areas of the interior, while giving privacy to lobby guests. “Hayden wanted privacy while letting the light come in, so we used glass louvers for both privacy and as architecture accent,” explains Budji.

FLOATING STAIRWAY

A natural feature is the rock garden below the stairway. It has real rocks, trunk, pebbles arranged like a zen garden to create an organic, warm, natural feel. Situated in one corner in the lobby, under the stairs, it is instantly visible and blurs the boundaries of a busy social space.

The floating stairway—steps suspended to look like they are afloat—has been a signature Budji design since the ‘80s. Its support or metal joints concealed, it makes the scenery look almost ethereal—and in a medical or surgical clinic, that certainly lifts the feeling of heaviness or anxiety a patient might feel.

CURVED CORNERS DEFINED BY LIGHT

The entire Belo NEXA is characterized by the absence of sharp corners to avoid starkness. Instead, corners are curved—another Budji signature mark. And lighting is used not only to illuminate but also to define space. “I washed the walls with light, also the walk space, use it to frame the space,” says Budji.

WHIMSICAL ‘SELFIE’ SCULPTURE

Sculpture is the only decorative feature in the clinic. And sculpture art at Belo NEXA makes for good conversation piece.

Greg Lansky’s Algorithmic Beauty (2022), its caption says, “serves as a modern-day continuation of the legacy of Venus de Milo” but it’s meant to “boldly eschews the use of beauty filters, choosing instead to honor the traces of plastic surgery with elegance and respect….”

Selfie turned into classic art—a touch of whimsy—it is positioned before the mirror to create the illusion of endless space.

The other life-size sculpture is Kymo in bronze by Coderch & Malavia.

STATE-OF-THE-ART SURGERY ROOMS

If there’s one thing Belo NEXA is really proud of, it is its state-of-the-art operating rooms or theaters that has automated features, monitors, and, which Dr. Hayden Kho points out, has its own oxygen power plant. Instead of using oxygen tanks, the clinic produces its own oxygen that is connected to the operating rooms. Apparently no budget was spared for the operating theaters.

Their design veered away from, as Budji puts it, “the stainless-steel cold, claustrophobic feel,” and instead looks spacious yet homey. “We used hospital vinyl, anti-bacterial, non-wood, the interior film non-porous and mimics the pattern of organic materials like wood. So it looks warm, not claustrophobic or antiseptic cold,” says Budji.

TOUCH OF COLOR

While the entire clinic has neutral hues, color is used sparingly in the treatment rooms.

The VIP recovery rooms are designed to look like in a 5-star hotel.

Patagonian marble from Greece is used in the restroom to give the ambiance of modernity a feeling of richness and warmth.