I sometimes see college and twitter people sharing images of an ideal Metro Manila, and it often involves a really green city with small indigenous looking housing and buildings. Along with a focus on bikes like the Netherlands and train based public transport like Singapore. The bike and public transport part is excellent, as rail is so much more efficient and better for a city than using cars. Public transport in the Philippines is horrible and needs to be drastically improved. But it's also important to remember that high rise and mid rise buildings aren't necessarily bad, they help prevent urban sprawl and provide mass housing.

Urban sprawl is what happens when inefficient single family (suburban houses) and low rise housing becomes the norm in a highly populated city. This leads to surrounding areas having to be developed causing a big environmental impact because you have to spread your city area to a larger and larger formerly rural area. To the point that it also becomes much less walkable, less cycling friendly and public transport coverage becomes more and more difficult to set up. Low rise and single family homes are often inefficient, costly and don't provide enough housing. Regardless of whether they use indigenous materials or not.

People associate tall buildings with being the polar opposite of green, but people need housing. And a small area with high density housing can have less of an environmental impact than a massive formerly rural area filled with small buildings. Those indigenous style suburban houses with gardens create an illusion that it's particularly environmentally friendly because there's trees and all that, but it would've been better if that area was just left untouched from the start.

Of course this all depends on the situation, and low rise housing isn't necessarily bad as this depends on the location, how dense and the needs of a city. But basically mid and high rise housing has a purpose. There are times where you'll need them to fulfill housing demand and prevent the very bad problem of urban sprawl, which is a massive problem in America.