The final projects of a semester — and, without knowing it when it began, the end of a chapter for me too.

For the September–December 2022 semester, Architectural Design VI explored new ways of living in response to the evolving needs of Santo Domingo and its surrounding areas.

Throughout the semester, students moved from research and analysis to the definition of new architectural typologies, developing proposals where housing, work, commerce, culture, gastronomy, recreation and community could coexist in different ways.

What began as six ideas gradually became six architectural projects.

Six Ideas, Six Projects

The studio resulted in six proposals, each approaching the relationship between architecture and contemporary life from a different perspective.

01 — Aquatic Commercial & Residential Platform
Sindy · Amy · Sheedhartha

A mixed-use platform exploring new relationships between residential life, commercial activity and water.

02 — Communal Commercial Villa
Gabriela · Diukeidy

A hybrid model combining community, living and commerce within a shared architectural environment.

03 — Dominican Cultural Residence
Marian · Edmirla

A residential proposal where Dominican culture and identity become part of the spatial experience.

04 — Sports Camp & Stadium
Daniela · Paula

A programme bringing together accommodation, sports, recreation and collective spaces.

05 — Officetel Mirador Botánico
María · Manuel

A hybrid work-and-living typology exploring the increasingly blurred boundaries between home and workplace.

06 — Dominican Gastronomic Centre
Linette · Francheska

A cultural and mixed-use destination using Dominican gastronomy as a catalyst for experience, gathering and identity.

From an Idea to Architecture

The final projects represented more than the resolution of a semester.

They documented the entire process of learning how to transform an initial question into architecture:

research → context → programme → concept → space → resolution

Each proposal evolved differently, but all began by questioning existing models and considering how architecture could respond to changing ways of living.

And that was always one of the things I enjoyed most about teaching design:

not giving students the answer, but helping them develop the tools to find their own.

The Last Studio

Looking back, this semester means something different to me now.

Architectural Design VI was the last architecture studio I taught in Santo Domingo.

In December 2022, I closed the semester with these projects and with it, an important chapter of my professional life.

Teaching had given me a different way to experience architecture — through questions, conversations, critiques, experiments and, most importantly, through seeing ideas evolve in the hands of someone else.

A few weeks later, in January 2023, I moved to Madrid.

New city.
New references.
New challenges.
A new chapter.

There are moments you only recognise as endings once you look back at them.

This was one of mine.

Course
Architectural Design VI

Period
September—December 2022

Institution
EAD–PUCMM

Professor
Sarah Tió

Location
Santo Domingo · Dominican Republic

Projects
6 Final Architectural Proposals

Topics
Housing · Mixed-Use · Culture · Community · New Ways of Living

Type
Teaching Archive · Final Studio · 2022