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The term "edifice complex" was coined in the 1970s to describe Philippine
First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non- monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the ...
Imelda Marcos' practice of using publicly funded construction projects as political and election propaganda. Built with a Brutalist architectural style, perhaps to emphasize their grandiose character, these construction projects were funded by foreign loans, allowing the incumbent Marcos administration to create an impression of progress, but instead put the Philippines through a series of debt crises. The first of the crises occurred in 1970, which many economic historians consider to have triggered the socioeconomic unrest which later led Marcos to impose
martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Martia ...
in 1972. The expression has also been generalized outside of the context of Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos and the Philippines.


Etymology

The term is a play on the "
Oedipus complex The Oedipus complex (also spelled Œdipus complex) is an idea in psychoanalytic theory. The complex is an ostensibly universal phase in the life of a young boy in which, to try to immediately satisfy basic desires, he unconsciously wishes to h ...
" of psychoanalytic theory. While earlier use of the term elsewhere in the world has been suggested, the term was independently coined by
Behn Cervantes Benjamín Roberto "Behn" H. Cervantes (August 25, 1938 – August 13, 2013) was a Filipino artist and activist. He was highly regarded as a theater pioneer, teacher, and progressive thinker who was detained multiple times during martial law in the ...
to criticise the construction of the Cultural Center of the Philippines during the buildup to the 1969 presidential election campaign, during which Imelda Marcos' husband
Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. ( , , ; September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician, lawyer, dictator, and kleptocrat who was the 10th president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled under martial ...
was running for a then-unprecedented second term as
President of the Philippines The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of ...
.
Deyan Sudjic Deyan Sudjic (born 6 September 1952) is a British writer and broadcaster, specialising in the fields of design and architecture. He was formerly the director of the Design Museum, London.LSE"Advisory board" retrieved 17 May 2013 Life and caree ...
, in his 2005 book ''The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World'', generalizes the term, expanding it outside of the context of Marcos and the Philippines. He writes:
There is a psychological parallel between making a mark on the landscape with a building and the exercise of political power. Both depend on the imposition of will. Certainly, seeing their worldview confirmed by reducing an entire city to the scale of a doll's house in an architectural model has an inherent appeal for those who regard the individual as of no account. ...Architecture feeds the egos of the susceptible. They grow more and more dependent on it to the point where architecture becomes an end to itself, seducing the addicts as they build more and more on an even larger scale.Building is the means by which the egotism of the individual is expressed in its most naked form: the Edifice Complex.
Sudjic goes on to explore many instances of the complex both historically and in the modern world, including the example of Imelda Marcos and her architect, Leandro V. Locsin.


Commonly cited examples in the Philippines

Buildings cited as examples of the Marcos era edifice complex include the buildings of the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex (conceived in 1966), the San Juanico Bridge (conceived in 1969), the Philippine International Convention Center (conceived in 1974), the Philippine Heart Center (conceived in 1975), the National Arts Center in
Los Baños, Laguna Los Baños, officially the Municipality of Los Baños ( tgl, Bayan ng Los Baños), colloquialy 'elbi' or simply LB, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Laguna, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 115,353 ...
(inaugurated in 1976),
Coconut Palace Coconut Palace, also known as Tahanang Pilipino (), is a government building located in the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Manila, Philippines. It was the official residence and the principal workplace of the vice president of th ...
(conceived in 1978), the Lung Center of the Philippines (conceived in 1981), the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (conceived in 1981), the Philippine Plaza Hotel (conceived in 1976), and Terminal 1 of Manila International Airport (completed in 1981). The 1976 Tondo evictions which were part of the "Tondo Urban Renewal Project" and the deaths of construction workers at the Manila Film Center are also counted as signs of Imelda's having the complex. The "designer hospitals" were particularly criticized as wrongly prioritised healthcare projects, draining public funds for the benefit of only a handful of patients, while basic health institutions, such as the Quezon Institute for Tuberculosis Patients, were overflowing and underfunded.


Destruction of Mt. Sungay

One other example, which was never completed, was the Palace in the Sky complex in
Tagaytay Tagaytay, officially the City of Tagaytay ( fil, Lungsod ng Tagaytay), is a 2nd class component city in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 85,330 people. It is one of the country's most po ...
,
Cavite Cavite, officially the Province of Cavite ( tl, Lalawigan ng Kabite; Chavacano: ''Provincia de Cavite''), is a province in the Philippines located in the Calabarzon region in Luzon. Located on the southern shores of Manila Bay and southw ...
, which Imelda intended to host the visit of US President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
. The construction of the palace, which was suddenly stopped when Reagan canceled his visit, drastically changed the landscape of the Cavite highland, because preparations for the construction meant leveling the geographically distinct
Mount Sungay Mount Sungay, also known as Mount Gonzales, is a mountain in the province of Cavite in the Philippines. Located in eastern Tagaytay, the inactive stratovolcano is the highest point in the province of Cavite, at ."Palace in the Sky in Tagaytay"
. Tagaytay Hotels. Retrieved on 2013-10-22.
When the
People Power Revolution The People Power Revolution, also known as the EDSA Revolution or the February Revolution, was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines, mostly in Metro Manila, from February 22 to 25, 1986. There was a sustained campaign of c ...
in 1986 overthrew the Marcoses, the new government renamed the palace as the
People's Park in the Sky The People's Park in the Sky, often simply called People's Park and originally named Palace in the Sky, is a historical urban park in Tagaytay, Cavite, Philippines. The park was converted from an incomplete mansion, known as the Palace in the Sk ...
, opening it to the public to help demonstrate the excesses of the ousted regime.


In popular culture

The term was mentioned in the contemporary 1974 disaster film '' The Towering Inferno'' in which the developer of the ill-fated skyscraper was maneuvering with a U.S. Senator to secure federal funding for similar buildings around the United States. In episode 39 of the 1990s television sitcom ''Home Improvement'', titled "Love is a Many Splintered Thing," main character Tim Taylor's next door neighbor, Wilson, jokes that Tim has "an edifice complex" due to the fact that he is a handyman who enjoys building things. The term is again mentioned in the 1997 James Bond movie ''
Tomorrow Never Dies ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' is a 1997 spy film, the eighteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the second to star Pierce Brosnan as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode from a screenplay ...
'' when, after being captured by Stamper and taken to the CMGN tower in Saigon (from which Carver has hung a large banner featuring his face), he remarks "Another Carver Building, if I didn't know any better I'd say he developed an edifice complex"


See also

* Marcos mansions


References

{{The Marcoses, state=collapsed Presidency of Ferdinand Marcos 1970s neologisms