# Stone by stone — Saving the heritage houses of Batanes Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-howie-severino-podcast-3422337/stone-by-stone-saving-the-heritage-houses-of-batanes Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-howie-severino-podcast-3422337/stone-by-stone-saving-the-heritage-houses-of-batanes.md Podcast: [The Howie Severino Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-howie-severino-podcast-3422337) Published: 2025-12-15T14:53:07+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/the-howie-severino-podcast/episodes/693fda657e21d19ff2aead15 Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6686611e03dd2c690e0a0e89/e/693fda657e21d19ff2aead15/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-howie-severino-podcast-3422337/episodes/stone-by-stone-saving-the-heritage-houses-of-batanes Duration seconds: 1638 ## Resource For this special episode of Howie Severino Presents, the team travels to the northernmost province of the archipelago to look for the last traditional stone houses, a distinctive feature of Batanes that is rapidly disappearing.     Some of these houses have been standing for more than a hundred years, a symbol of Batanes’ rugged ingenuity. But recent restrictions on harvesting local wood and other native materials have hampered their repair. Home owners are shifting to cement and more common shelter designs, erasing a unique cultural treasure.    Racing against time, a collaborative effort by university-based engineers and architects, the DOST, and indigenous builders has created a prototype of a reinforced traditional house.    Is this the solution to a vanishing heritage? Severino and his team journey to a sea-swept corner of Batanes to find out.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-howie-severino-podcast-3422337/episodes/stone-by-stone-saving-the-heritage-houses-of-batanes/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-howie-severino-podcast-3422337/stone-by-stone-saving-the-heritage-houses-of-batanes.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.