Paulo G. Alcazaren completed his Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degrees at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He received a master’s degree in Urban Design from the National University of Singapore, earning the Singapore Institute of Architect’s book award for his academic performance there.
As a working student in the 1970s, he apprenticed with the firms of noted architects Cesar Concio and Felipe Mendoza. From 1978 he worked for National Artist Ildefonso P Santos before eventually striking on his own in 1982 and forming PDAA Partners, which specialized in site planning and landscape architecture.
PDAA set new standards in design practice that led to overseas commissions in Singapore starting in 1983, and in Malaysia and the Middle East the following year. In 1989, Alcazaren set up the firm’s Singapore office, PDAA Design Pte Ltd. A design office in Kuala Lumpur, PDAA Sdn Bhd, followed in 1992. Alcazaren was Managing Director of the Singapore office and director of the Malaysian office through the 1990s, resettling in Manila, as head of PGAA Creative Design in 2004.
Alcazaren has over three decades of experience as a design consultant. His work over this period has garnered him several design awards from the Singapore Institute of Landscape Architects, the Kuala Lumpur City Council and the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects.
He is a registered and licensed environmental planner and landscape architect. His professional affiliations are with the Philippine Institute of Environmental Planners (PIEP), as member of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the American Society of Campus and University Planners (SCUP), as honorary fellow of the Philippine Institute of Architects (PIA) and as fellow and past president of the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects (PALA).
For his professional accomplishments, Alcazaren was named Outstanding Professional of the Year in Landscape Architecture in 2002, and selected among the top ten professionals in all fields with the PFPA Excellence Award in the Philippines in 2009. In 2015, he was awarded the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining ( CCP Awards for the Arts ) in Architecture and Allied Arts.
Alcazaren is also a writer and journalist, with over a dozen books and publications on architecture, design and urban history. He was the Editor in Chief of BluPrint Magazine for ten years (2002-2012) and has been writing a regular column in the Philippine Star since 1999. For his writing he won the 2002 Alab ng Haraya Award given by the NCCA. He has also curated three exhibits on landscape architecture, planning and urban history, and has been featured in group and individual exhibits featuring his architectural photography.
His advocacies are in heritage conservation along with public parks and open space. Alcazaren is a member of ICOMOS Manila, the Philippine Geographical Society, and was a founding member of the Heritage Conservation Society. He sits on the board of the Escuela Taller de Filipinas Foundation, and is the current Chairman of the Board of Landscape Architects at the Professional Regulation Commission of the Philippines.
