A boutique studio, deliberately small
MET Architectural Design is a principal-led residential architecture studio based in Quezon City. It was founded in 2015 by Miguel Ernesto Tayag, after nearly two decades of Philippine practice, around a single conviction: the smallest detail of a residence is the architect’s responsibility — not something handed to a junior taking notes. Homes that breathe. Designed with clarity.
“I don’t believe good design comes from adding more. It comes from knowing what to leave out. A home should do more than look impressive. It should support how you live, in ways that feel natural and clear over time.
My approach is grounded in restraint. Not minimal for its own sake, but deliberate — every decision has a reason, and nothing is there without purpose.
Every project begins with understanding how you want to live. Not just in terms of space, but in rhythm — how you move, gather, rest, and spend time. From there the work becomes a process of aligning those patterns with the realities of site, climate, and construction. I see architecture as a long-term responsibility. The choices made early shape not just how a home looks, but how it performs, how it feels, and how it holds up.
I’m not interested in homes that only impress at first glance. The goal is something that continues to feel right — day after day, year after year.”
What the work is for
A studio this size runs on a short list of things worth doing.
Creating real value in the work, rather than volume. Mentoring, so the people here get more autonomy over time, not less. Collaborating with people we respect, inside the studio and out. Building work for the contractors, consultants and suppliers who do it well.
And giving clients something to enjoy after the project ends — not just at handover.
We try to do all of that with what we’d call unreasonable hospitality, and to do business kindly but firm. Those two together are most of the culture. The rest is drawings.
Work Culture
The principal is in every decision that shapes the house — the site strategy, the plan, the section, the material calls — and answers for them. A boutique studio carries those decisions into drawings that agree with each other, details that survive the site, and a build that matches what was promised. People here get more autonomy over time, not less; that is how the standard holds when the studio is busy.
Technology
The studio works in Autodesk Revit, a single building-information model that the architectural, structural and services drawings are all cut from, so they agree with each other before construction starts. You walk through the house in rendered views before it is built, and our own pre-design tools do the early arithmetic. That is what frees the hours for design decisions.
What clients say
“Miguel is a consummate professional, very dedicated to his work and knows how to adjust to his clients’ needs.”
“We’ve worked with Miguel on our second home and it was very smooth. He delivers on time, punctuality is excellent, professionalism is all the way.”
“I can rely on Migs to come up with creative solutions to challenges we encounter in our development projects. Working with him is always a win-win situation.”
“It was a long journey to plan and build our new house, but with the support of Miguel and his team we now have a beautiful, very comfortable, modern family home.”
If subtlety makes sense to you, we will get along.
We take on a limited number of residential commissions each year to protect standards, principal attention and timelines. If that posture sounds like the kind of studio you want to work with — write to us.