This Cool New Museum Will Take You Back to Happy, Shiny 1950s Quezon City

(SPOT.ph) What if you had the chance to step back in time, into a blissful postwar period wherein movies, music and the arts, along with modern design and architecture, were all in full bloom? It’s now possible to do so, as Quezon Memorial Circle’s latest attraction, Bahay Modernismo, a museum of midcentury modern culture and design, was opened last May 30, 2025, ending National Heritage Month on a high note.

While listening to Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte’s opening words at Bahay Modernismo’s launch, she revealed, much to the surprise of the audience, that the museum itself is composed of the structural and architectural parts of the original Aquino family house formerly situated on 25 Times Street, Quezon City. 

Sec. Jerry Acuzar of Human Settlements and Urban Development, known to be a personal friend of Pnoy, shared in his speech his own memories of the Aquino property. Acuzar recalled, when asked about the decision to demolish the home, that Aquino Jr. once told him the house also brought back sad memories, like the wakes of his father and mother which were both held in Times Street. Acuzar, however, felt it was also necessary to conserve the home in some way.  

Fresh from a Conservation of Modern Heritage course at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, California, Arch. Lico found an opportunity to practice what he just learned. “During the course, we visited the actual modernist houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra, and I believe we can do the same here,” Lico shared. “Bahay Modernismo invites us to revisit that vital moment in our history when Quezon City was envisioned as a new kind of capital—a laboratory for urban dreams, civic aspirations, and domestic reinvention. This museum offers more than an architectural journey; it offers a cultural one.”

According to Lico, midcentury houses in the Philippines are symbolic of postwar optimism, a clean sweep of streamlined forms that broke free from the fussy, Spanish colonial decoration and traditions of Filipino residences, most of which were destroyed during World War Two.  

This concept is detailed in the exhibition text, which reads: “The house is symbolic of the cultural shift towards modernism after a destructive war and becomes the springboard to narrate the story of Quezon City, framed in the culture of modernity and mid-century aesthetics—a domestic life shaped by the new housing typology, technological progress, consumerist values, politics of style, familial relationships, youth culture, and changing social norms.”  

One of the next “galleries” is the dining room, wherein a large wooden Spoon-and-Fork set—iconic wall décor in many Filipino midcentury dining rooms—is spotted, along with a comprehensive timeline of the Rise of Bungalow Housing in Quezon City, as the city was, in the 1950s-60s, the birthplace and experimentation ground of modern-day subdivisions (Philamlife Subdivision, QC by Carlos Arguelles and Angel Nakpil) and Project Houses (Project 6, 7, 8 etc).  

Upper-level bedrooms are all lovingly decorated, from the children’s room which was so effectively furnished that one of the guest’s children wouldn’t leave the play area, to the teen’s bedroom replete with a Nora Aunor tribute wall. Down the hall, a 1960s beauty ad of Gloria Romero peeks from the mint-green-and-pink bathroom.  

“This space is deeply personal. It reflects the everyday lives of people—mothers managing space-age kitchens, fathers fulfilling postwar roles of protector and provider, children growing up in the promise of suburbia,” Lico shared. “It reflects collective themes: reconstruction, nation-building, decolonization, gender shifts, consumer culture, and the indelible influence of media, technology, and modern design.” In its entirety, Bahay Modernismo is a nostalgic testament to an optimistic era in Philippine 20th century history, a Bahay for Modern times.