Thesis (BS Architecture) University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2018

With depleting fish and marine resources, the Philippine government promoted the concept of mariculture parks, also as a way to reduce poverty in coastal communities. However, there is a low participation of local residents allegedly due to the limited source of livelihood. Among the numerous mariculture parks in the country, the unique features of the coast of Panabo eventually lead to the establishment of the National Mariculture Center of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR-NMC). This thesis entitled FISHSCAPES: ESTABLISHING THE SENSE OF PLACE AND LOCAL IDENTITY OF THE PANABO MARICULTURE PARK aims to create an awareness of place by introducing an architecture that ‘gathers the landscape’ and reveals its true character and meaning to the city, and captures the authentic identity of the coast of Panabo by exploring the concept of place. The sense of place, place identity, and place-making theories serve as the backbone of the research design
The flow of data collection runs into two major courses. The first course is the descriptive analysis of the present urban condition in terms of key potential aspects that foster local identity. The second course is the structured survey questionnaire composed of the 1) Community Vision Survey 2) Place Identity Survey, and the 3) Sense of Place Survey, accounted to describe the local context of the through people's perception about the image and place identity of the Panabo Mariculture Park.
For the coast of Panabo, results show that people from different sectors envision the mariculture industry’s potential for tourism as accessibility is one of the best assets of its shores. The place also mostly identifies with social imageability, given the dynamic nature of mariculture industry. It was also discovered that fishery-related places foster a greater sense of place regardless of one’s degree of involvement with mariculture.