Leandro Locsin came to architecture from music: he was reading for a degree in piano at the University of Santo Tomás when he changed course. His first significant building, the round Church of the Holy Sacrifice at the University of the Philippines in 1955, put a thin concrete shell dome over an altar placed in the middle of the congregation, and was executed with a group of artists who would all later be named National Artists. A visit to the United States, and meetings with Paul Rudolph and Eero Saarinen, confirmed concrete as his material: cheap in the Philippines, easy to form, and capable of the cantilevered slabs that became his signature — a heavy volume that appears to float clear of the ground. He was named National Artist for Architecture in 1990.
