hen you've got an artist for a client and she happens to be your own mother, this could easily mean handling a real time bomb. Luckily, young architect Melinda "Popi" Laudico turns out to be spunkier than mama ever was. Close dealings with real explosive egos of the celebrity kind while working with Cuban interior and furniture designer Waldo Fernandez in LA has toughened her up for future jobs. And Popi literally ended up with the office floor- not to mention the walls and the ceilings- all to herself.

Everything in MASTABA, Inc., an architectural and interior design company that exports home accessories, is a work of art. That's about all Popi's proud mom could say. The office's collection of artworks by Alfredo Liongoren, Roberto Chabet, Gerry Tan and Constancio Bernardo obviously are; but with the meeting of two generations of creative minds-mom's personal and professional requirements seen through a daughter's eyes-function suddenly takes on an aesthetic twist.