Santuario Borinquen

A Sanctuary for Recovery, Resilience, and Renewal

When disaster strikes, recovery requires more than rebuilding damaged structures. Communities need places that help people feel safe again, reconnect with one another, and regain a sense of normalcy, identity, and hope.

Santuario Borinquen was designed as a year-round healing campus located in San Germán, Puerto Rico — a place shaped by hurricanes, flooding, displacement, aging infrastructure, and long-term community vulnerability.

Rather than functioning only as an emergency shelter, the project operates as an active community resource during everyday life while maintaining the ability to rapidly transform during times of crisis.

The campus combines temporary housing, childcare, elderly support, recreation, training spaces, gathering environments, and natural healing landscapes into one interconnected system designed to support emotional, social, physical, and long-term community recovery.

At its core, Santuario Borinquen explores a simple question:

What if healing was not something communities searched for after disaster — but something already built into the places they call home?

Hardware

1. Laptop / Desktop Computer – Used for modeling, rendering, drafting, and project development
2. Camera / Smartphone – Used to document physical models, process work, and final presentation images

Software

1. Autodesk Revit – Primary BIM platform used for modeling, floorplans, sections, site planning, documentation, and 3D views
2. Twinmotion – Used for rendering, environmental visualization, lighting studies, and project atmosphere
3. AutoCAD – Used for drafting support and technical drawing development
4. Adobe Illustrator – Used for site graphics, diagrams, layouts, and presentation refinement
5. Adobe Photoshop – Used for image editing, post-production, and graphic adjustments

Physical Modeling Materials

1. Foam Board – Building masses, landscape base, and structural mockups
2. Cardboard / Chipboard – Building forms, model construction, and testing studies
3. Plaster / Mortar Mix – Concrete texture studies, terrain development, and architectural massing
4. Wood / Scrap Wood – Model bases, structure, and handmade detailing
5. Cotton Balls / Sponge Material – Handmade tree foliage and vegetation textures
6. Twigs / Natural Branches – Tree trunks, branches, and landscape elements
7. Glue (Wood Glue / Hot Glue / Super Glue) – Model assembly and reinforcement
8. Paint / Finishing Materials – Surface treatment, color testing, and presentation finishing

Physical Tools

1. X-Acto Knife / Utility Knife – Cutting model materials and detailing
2. Metal Ruler / Straight Edge – Measuring and precision cuts
3. Cutting Mat – Safe fabrication surface
4. Drafting Pencils / Pens / Markers – Sketches, annotations, and design studies
5. Sandpaper / Files – Refining edges, smoothing plaster, and finishing model components

Santuario Borinquen is a year-round community healing campus located in San Germán, Puerto Rico.

Designed to respond to hurricanes, flooding, displacement, and long-term community decline, the project creates a place where people can recover, reconnect, and rebuild.

Rather than functioning as a temporary emergency shelter alone, Santuario Borinquen operates daily as a community resource while maintaining the ability to rapidly transform during times of crisis.

Puerto Rico’s recent history has been shaped by hurricanes, flooding, migration, infrastructure challenges, and economic instability.

Recovery often extends far beyond rebuilding structures. Communities need places that support emotional, social, and physical healing.

This project was developed as a response to that reality.

San Germán, once one of Puerto Rico’s most important cities, represents a place with deep identity but growing vulnerability.

Flooding pressures, aging infrastructure, population shifts, and limited investment create conditions where communities become increasingly exposed during disasters.

Rather than designing for major urban centers alone, this project seeks to invest in a place often overlooked.

Traditional emergency shelters solve immediate survival needs but often lack familiarity, dignity, privacy, and long-term stability.

People experiencing trauma are frequently relocated into unfamiliar environments at the exact moment comfort matters most.

Santuario Borinquen proposes a different approach: a place that exists before disaster, serves during disaster, and supports recovery after disaster.

This project explores healing through four overlapping dimensions:

Emotional Healing

Nature, familiarity, privacy, warmth, and culturally grounded environments.

Social Healing

Gathering spaces, childcare, recreation, elderly programs, and community infrastructure.

Physical Healing

Shelter, accessibility, climate comfort, resilience, and adaptable emergency response.

Economic Healing

Training spaces, operational jobs, preparedness programs, and community support systems.

Much of the 787,630 SF site remains intentionally preserved.

Rather than over-masterplanning every square foot, the project embraces existing landscape conditions through minimal pathways, outdoor movement, and simple natural spaces.

Healing is supported not through heavily designed gardens alone, but through connection to familiar Puerto Rican landscape.

The campus includes:

• Hotel Buildings

• Residential Housing

• Daycare Center

• Elderly Center

• Gymnasium

• Cafeteria

• Training Center

• Emergency Command Center

• Maintenance / Operations Spaces

• Outdoor Gathering Areas

• Healing Landscapes

• Community Support Infrastructure

Each component supports both everyday community use and emergency transformation.

The hotel buildings serve dual purposes.

During normal operation, they function as active accommodations and community support housing.

During emergencies, they rapidly transform into temporary and mid-term housing for displaced residents.

The goal is to create a transition from home → temporary stability → permanent recovery.

The daycare provides safe, supportive environments for children during normal operations and emergency conditions.

The elderly center addresses isolation, aging, and the importance of third spaces through flexible gathering environments, dedicated kitchens, and familiar social settings.

These programs reinforce healing across generations.

The gymnasium and cafeteria function as active community spaces year-round.

During emergencies, they provide adaptable infrastructure capable of supporting shelter operations, gathering, food distribution, and large-scale community coordination.

Preparedness is part of healing.

The command center operates year-round as an organizational and planning hub while maintaining the capacity to transition into emergency coordination space during disasters.

Training programs, preparedness education, and operational strategy help strengthen long-term resilience.

This project intentionally avoids architecture designed purely for spectacle.

Instead, Santuario Borinquen prioritizes simplicity, warmth, familiarity, and human comfort.

The goal was not to create a perfect masterplan, but a place that feels lived-in, welcoming, and deeply connected to community identity.

Key resilience strategies include:

• Flood awareness and site planning

• Flexible emergency transformation

• Durable construction systems

• Multi-building redundancy

• Climate-responsive planning

• Long-term community preparedness

The project is designed to support communities before, during, and after crisis events.

Software used:

• Autodesk Revit

• Twinmotion

The project was developed through BIM modeling, visualization, documentation, environmental testing, and iterative design workflows.

Revit supported:

• Modeling

• Sections

• Floorplans

• Site organization

• Documentation

• Visualization preparation

Digital workflows allowed the project to be coordinated across architecture, program, and site planning.

The physical model translated the project from digital space into a tangible representation.

Model development explored:

• Topography

• Building organization

• Material experimentation

• Landscape relationships

• Scale and spatial experience

The project evolved through multiple stages of testing and refinement.

Major areas of exploration included:

• Program organization

• Site strategy

• Building relationships

• Community integration

• Emergency transformation logic

Why we created Santuario Borinquen.

What we learned.

How architecture can support healing beyond physical construction.

Santuario Borinquen is more than a shelter.

It is a year-round healing ecosystem designed to strengthen community resilience, preserve belonging, and support recovery through architecture grounded in familiarity, preparedness, and hope.

By combining housing, social infrastructure, landscape, and adaptable emergency response, the project proposes a future where healing is not temporary — it is built into the community itself.