ABSTRACT
This urban design research initiative took place in Santiago, Dominican Republic, as part of a Fulbright Scholarship. Partnering with the Architecture School and Center for Urban Studies at Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, the author conducted a ten-month long environmental planning study in the low-income barrio Yagüita de Pastor. The barrio was adversely affected by a natural disaster in 2012 and has struggled to recover. Six Dominican architecture students participated on the research team, conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis. The project had three goals: to train local architecture students in public interest design research methods; to study the barrio’s growth and the environmental stresses it poses on the waterway running through it; and, to design a proposal combining green infrastructure and public space to reduce flood risk and improve the stream’s health.
