Pinoy Big Brother - The House

The House

The house is actually located in front of the ABS-CBN studios in Quezon City.

A car was used to transfer the evicted housemate from the Big Brother house to the main building of ABS-CBN. Due to the number of people gathered outside to watch the eviction, it would be rather unsafe for the housemate to walk to the nearby building. Of course, the car can't go inside the building.

The Big Brother House is a multi-room studio designed with walls painted with pastel colors complete with sets of cameras and microphones. The House is specially designed to capture the housemates' every move. Camera cross surrounds the house, it allows cameramen inside the house record the housemates' every move without being seen by the housemates. This hallway is equipped with a camera dolly for the camera's movement. The house is surrounded by two-way mirrors to allow the camera to see what's happening inside the house. The cameras cannot be seen through the mirror because the camera cross is painted black, it has to be as dark as possible so the cameras cannot be seen, though sometimes reflections of the camera or the cameramen are seen in some episodes. It also has a garden and swimming pool. To capture the housemates' every move and speech, the house is equipped with cameras (in the camera cross or cameras on "hot heads") and microphones (lapel microphones used by the housemates, and boom microphones surrounding the garden area). For the housemates security and the essence of being locked away from the outside world, the garden area is totally covered with a camouflage-type of fabric. It also boasted of a multi-faith altar in one wall of the house (one which has a Bible, a Koran, and twelve rosaries), making the house the only Big Brother house that has a room set aside for religious purposes (although it is said that the Arab Big Brother house had prayer rooms). And although any form of communication from the outside world is banned inside the house, there is a large flat-screen television set in the living room, used for only 2 purposes:

• To show any video Big Brother wanted to show to any or all housemates, especially that of the TV Mass every Sunday (contrary to reports early in the first season that a priest would visit them; later on, a priest unseen by viewers would visit them), and
• To announce the names of nominees for eviction directly to the housemates and the person evicted from the house. (The housemates saw either host Willie Revillame (prior to the Celebrity Edition), Mariel Rodriguez or Toni Gonzaga, or (prior to the Teen Edition) Bianca Gonzalez talk to them during nomination and eviction nights.)

To complete the set up, 26 surveillance cameras are positioned all over the house to watch the housemates' every move, including the bathroom. For modesty's sake, however, images from the bathroom will be shown if the bathroom is used for any purpose other than bathing (such as gossiping).

The set up of the house, especially when shown on television, makes the illusion that it is a one-storey house. But anyone who passes by the house can easily notice that its facade is that of a two-storey house. That is because the second storey houses parts of the control room. The actual front doors to the house area are actually further inside.

The house interior was rebuilt for the second season. These changes include the following:

• The number of cameras have been increased to 42.
• There was a secret room built behind the confession room and a large activity area leading from the garden.
• The house has a prayer room rather than just an altar.
• The flat screen monitor found in the living area is now used to call any housemate.
• The front door now leads to the Eviction Hall next door.
• Instead of watching a TV mass, the housemates have a spiritual session with Coney Reyes, the show's spiritual adviser. This has been done since the first Celebrity Edition.

For the third season, more commonly referred to as Pinoy Big Brother: Double Up, the Big Brother house was divided into two different, yet equally furnished "houses," which the show claims as a "first in worldwide Big Brother history," as other Big Brother franchises had opted for "half-houses," one more superior than the other.

The changes that were made for the third season are the following

• The house was completely rebuilt from the ground up, new set up, and larger space.
• The guardians' area from the second teen edition was renovated to accommodate the season's twist.
• The housemates that are evicted every week exit out of the house through the confession room.
• Eviction takes place right outside of the Big Brother House (the Eviction Hall was used as the show's activity area, due to having the old activity area used as a living area).

For the fourth season, the facade of the Big Brother house was fully renovated, and the gates were removed. The outside of the Big Brother house still served as the venue for evictions just like the previous regular season. The Big Brother house was still divided into two different themed houses yet both equally furnished. Both houses have separate confession rooms. The garden was removed, and the pool was retained and was considered a separate area and was called the Resort. The area was used for some time for Big Brother's rewards and tasks to the housemates, and was a venue for some House Battles. The activity area was retained, and was renovated several times in order to accommodate the season's twists. Initially, it was used as a temporary shelter for the initial group of housemates, and was themed after a typical urban slum house.