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ARKI WEEK 2013
By Isobel Yap
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Last week, from September 7-13, the College of Architecture in UP Diliman celebrated their annual Arki Week, with the theme of “ideal”. The week aims to celebrate the spirit of camaraderie in the small college, and provide a creative outlet for students outside of their academic work.
The week kicked off on September 7, Saturday, with the Sportfest under the theme of the ideal man, or Homo Idealis. Despite suffering some setbacks, particularly from the weather, the event was moderately successful, with ultimate, football and badminton competitions pushing through. On Tuesday the college had a Fun Day, underlying the ideal home or Familia Specimen. In the atrium of the drafting building was set up an R&R spot for students, with various gaming consoles and couches to lounge on. There was also a contest wherein participants had to find temporary tattoos scattered throughout the college, apply them to their bodies, and take a picture, in which the student council would be tagged.
 
On Wednesday, the college opened an exhibit showcasing the ideal environment, or Optimus Ambitus. The exhibit featured the character profiles for the contestants in the upcoming pageant, Hiyas ng Arki, as well as a giant map of the world with pull-away sections of certain countries, with facts about what their ideal worlds were like. On Thursday, Arki held their annual inter-batch talent competition, Arki’s Got Talent, under the theme of ideal community or Specimen Communitae, where everyone’s talents are recognized and celebrated. The competition was won for the second time in a row by Balbino Santos, representing the senior batch, with his contact juggling act. Coming in second was Kristel Pangilinan, of the sophomores, and in third were the group of David Manalang, Japhet Marquez, Isabel Encarnacion and Jonie Agas for the juniors. Afterward, the event segued to the Hiyas ng Arki PressCon, where the contestants – not yet in costume — were interviewed and posed questions sent in from the audience, in anticipation of the event the next day.
 
Finally, Arki Week ended on Friday with the annual culminating event, Hiyas ng Arki. Hiyas is an inter-organization pageant competition, where each org selects one (or two) straight man (or men) and turn them into women to represent them in a traditional beauty pageant. This year featuring the theme of the ideal world, or Mundum Idealem, each organization had to dress their contestant according to their designated characters, all of which were ideal fictional worlds – El Dorado, Wonderland, The Capitol, Pandora, and Atlantis. In three hours, each contestant showcased a character costume, lingerie getup, talent, and evening gown. There was also a Question and Answer portion, with each contestant being posed a question by the judges. The third runner up was UAPSA-UPD’s Goldie Geur, as the city of El Dorado. Coming in second was ASAPHIL-UP’s Gandiss Everdeen, as the shining Capitol from the Hunger Games. And this year, taking the crown was TFA’s Malicia Keys, from Lewis Carol’s mad Wonderland.
 
Arki Week was organized by the UP ASC and co-presented by Smart: Live More, along with Dairy Queen, CD-R King, Red Bull, Wilcon Builders Depot, and MA Printing, with org partners ASAPHIL-UP, UAPSA-UP, Arki Forum, TFA, Arkaira, UPCLAS, UP Design Core, and UP Kustura, and media partner WhenInManila.com
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The College of Architecture in UP Diliman’s ARKI WEEK 2013
