Unless you’ve lived under a rock, you’ve probably seen one of Pinoy Architect’s viral videos. Not by him but by his fans, his videos are being widely disseminated via social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and more. His YouTube preview images always have him looking thoughtful or horrified, with a house in the background and himself in the front.
Llyan Oliver Austria, the architect behind Pinoy Architect, is the driving force behind the firm’s success. He earned his degree from Baguio City’s St. Louis University. Despite having a rocky academic experience, he nevertheless managed to place in the top five in the June 2016 Architecture Board Exams, inspiring students and faculty alike. For Oliver, the erratic timetable caused by certain failed subjects made it take seven years to complete a program that typically takes five.
He has gained Internet fame as the “Pinoy Architect” thanks to his uploads. His channel has been bursting with “vid response” videos for years, so he’s no newcomer to the genre. Only lately, though, did Llyan’s YouTube channel amass nearly 25 million views, catapulting him to the forefront of the country’s top online content makers.
What he’s doing is not revolutionary, though, as numerous response contents are already devoted to architecture, interior design, and furnishings. But to gather those kinds of numbers in such a short period is to borrow a beloved word in architecture, revolutionary; he has brought architecture to a broader (and younger) audience.
“I was not the finest student,” Architect Austria revealed in one of his videos from January 2020. The internet is buzzing with reports that he is an aspiring architect. However, this is easily debunked by the fact that he scored 81.5 percent on the 2016 Architect Licensure exam and placed fifth overall in the Philippines. Furthermore, he is the only Saint Louis University Baguio student to make the top 10 that year. His video portfolio of architectural work is available online.
I’d also like to know how he came to find his “voice”—that kind, helpful barkada tone that can be a little bit goofy but always ends up being the source of reliable information. Llyan (or perhaps his video team) deserves praise for their innovative use of video effects and visual clues to create professional-looking videos. I predicted that in the not-too-distant future, he would support various household goods and companies.
This demonstrates that he has more motivation to share than just the information and amusement his channel provides. Indeed, even his own YouTube channel came to fruition somewhat tardily.
On his original channel, which he called “Llyan Austria,” he posted videos on hacks, skits, parodies, gaming, home design, and other random topics. Although he created his channel in 2012, he didn’t begin regularly posting videos until 2017. He uploaded numerous gameplay and how-to videos on architecture and hacks to his channel.
He launched a second channel in 2019 under the name Oliver Austria, to which he has thus far contributed only four videos in more than a year. An article published in Manila Bulletin stated, “The veteran architect probably wasn’t prepared for Llyan’s respect for the work of his peers. Architects are so used to maintaining a public persona that they’re shocked when someone like Llyan bursts onto the scene and gains influence and clout that they could only have dreamed of before.
The world of the building has been like fine dining for a long time, so it’s no surprise that people would welcome Llyan’s brand of fast food comfort.
Llyan has that approachable vibe Pinoys love, even his quips and side comments are what you hear during an inhuman with your best buddies. They think what he’s doing is easy, but it’s not. One may have the knowledge, the experience, the pedigree, and the international degrees, but only Llyan can connect, explain, and even draw that way to his audience. And that audience has rewarded him well, with stratospheric views one can only.”
