With enough wisdom and foresight, plus proper training and ample guts, this young architect has been able to build her own design company from scratch.
Like most driven individuals who grew up in the provinces, Kaydee Marie Velasco was determined to help make her parents’ life less difficult when she decided to leave her hometown in Bicol to pursue an architectural degree at the Far Eastern University in Manila.
She also wanted to make her parents proud by being partly independent financially at a young age. “I’ve always wanted to create better designs and generate revenue from them through unique means such as working for my professors or helping senior architecture students with their thesis,” Kaydee tells PeopleAsia.
After taking notice of her love for design early on, Kaydee’s mother motivated her to take on-the-job training at Palafox Associates, one of the county’s biggest architectural firms.
“He must have seen how hard I worked, as Architect [Jun] Palafox entrusted me with big-ticket projects to handle. To show my gratitude, I worked even harder. I passed the Green Architect BERDE license in 2011. A year later, I passed the Architecture licensure exam in 2012,” Kaydee shares. At 23, she was then also one of the the youngest associate architects at Palafox Associates.
In 2013, an invitation to design a mini-mall complex in Bicol fell into Kaydee’s lap. It later paved the way for her to give birth to her own design firm—KMV Architectural Design Creations.
“I was a one-woman team. Adjusting from a corporate setup to a start-up was difficult. But with perseverance, the firm landed clients that contracted us to do large industrial master plans, urban plan, malls, commercial complexes and high rises,” she says.
Three years into project management, fit-out construction and real estate development management, KMV Architectural Design Creations evolved into a property developer dubbed as KMVAsia Development Corporation in 2016.
“From being a principal architect to becoming a CEO, it takes lots of guts, strategy, continuous learnings and training,” Kaydee continues. “We are continuing to build and strengthen our foundation. With the passion for achieving the outcome we envision, and with proper innovation, we believe that we can build sustainable communities and keep growing for the benefit of fellow Filipinos.”
KMVAsia develops such projects as township developments, vertical and horizontal residential developments, commercial mall projects, boutique hotels and other hospitality projects. KMVAsia also offers services in master planning, green architecture, interior design, design solutions, engineering, fit-out construction, sustainability rating, consultancy and real estate development management with its young and dynamic team.
In celebration of Women’s Month, Kaydee shares some words of wisdom with fellow women.
On her life’s advocacy
“My advocacy in life is to provide sustainable, efficient, functional, and affordable homes for the Philippines’ growing community. There are many ways on how we can tap this. It’s not only by just developing privately but also by partnering with the LGUs and come up with a good partnership.”
On achieving your dreams
“Balance everything. Have only one focus, strengthen it, grow it and innovate. Once you have that foundation, expand and tap opportunities.”
On women empowerment
“As a woman, I can empower other women by showing them that we can have an edge and specialty that can strengthen a life foundation. May it be in your business, in your home, or as a support to others. I’m continuously trying to achieve my vision on empowerment through innovation to build a sustainable and resilient ecosystem.”
