Independent Studio Azarai Hernandez

Independent Studio: Azarai Hernandez

The Green Heart of Pepillo Salcedo: Aligning community, environment, and economy, while acknowledging and retrofitting the post-industrial heritage and driver of the identity of a border town.

Pepillo Salcedo is a town on the northern Atlantic coast of Hispaniola Island, situated in the Dominican Republic at the border with Haiti, surrounded by delicate ecosystems such as the largest mangrove habitats in the DR and an estuary of a river. The town was developed as a Company Town at the beginning of the XX Century to process the products from the largest banana plantation in the Caribbean basin and export them to the USA. The company shut down over 60 years ago, leaving the town without an economic source. To address this issue and enhance Dominican presence at the border with Haiti, the government has planned significant national investments, including the enlargement of the port to handle modern ships and the construction of a natural gas power plant to meet the country's energy demand. It should be noted that the government also decided to carry out the construction of a border wall.

Azarai Hernandez

Itay Porat
Azarai Hernandez
The social and environmental impact of these three infrastructure interventions is already being felt due to extensive deforestation and adverse effects on the natural systems and the local population. Additionally, the banana company left behind valuable infrastructure for the town. This includes large warehouses which have been abandoned over the years, as well as the barracks that were formerly used as worker residences. Unfortunately, these dwellings are currently over crowded, in poor conditions and with inadequate services.
Azarai Hernandez
Azarai Hernandez
Considering the current situation and the infrastructural legacy, the proposal seeks to align community needs, environmental challenges, and new economic/industrial drivers, while acknowledging and retrofitting the post-industrial heritage of Pepillo Salcedo.
Azarai Hernandez

Itay Porat

Vyusti Agarwalla

Yan Wang

Aidan Rhianne

Kirstin Fisk Engelman
Building on the group proposals of the previous semester, during which a master plan was developed with this goal in mind, my independent studio now envisions a “green heart” located in the former warehouses and railyard area, becomes the new town center. A network of plazas, paths, community facilities (retrofitted warehouses), nurseries, and habitat rehabilitation areas, serve the residents of the town, amicably integrating them to the new industry and the natural systems. The housing component provides dignified shelter in the same location of the barracks, with a system of open spaces and neighborhood services. These spaces and services are organized along a pedestrian spine which connect to the green heart. Additionally, new housing is placed adjacent to the warehouses area, to ensure vibrancy, safety, and stewardship, which is of pivotal important in the Latin American context.
Azarai Hernandez
The repurposed warehouses include markets, training and manufacturing spaces, a heritage museum, a library, sport facilities, community gardens, nurseries providing plants for greening the town and for mangrove restoration. This approach establishes synergy between the town's historical legacy and its infrastructure with the public space, new local economic drives, and the restoration of various threatened habitats. The green heart also serves to buffer the residential areas from the large-scale industrial facilities.
Azarai Hernandez
Azarai Hernandez
The new dwellings acknowledge the vernacular housing typologies, providing porches and internal patios, and ensure cross-ventilation, which is important in tropical areas. Slanted roofs define the scale of the main pedestrian spaces, while flat roofs provide for self-constructed growth. The typology allows to incorporate small businesses. Three of the existing barracks that were in relatively good condition were preserved and retrofitted as community centers and reminders of the town’s legacy.
Azarai Hernandez
Azarai Hernandez
Azarai Hernandez
The green heart also provides the space to reconnect and rehabilitate two northern wetlands that had been severed by the port, including floating wetland devices and mangroves that help to cleanse the water. Paths over these restored wetlands provide connection between the green heart and the waterfront/beach, which is currently the main social and recreational space of the town.
Azarai Hernandez
The master plan resulted from an interdisciplinary Studio between the Departments of Landscape Architecture and City Planning of the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Economy, Planning, and Development of the Dominican Republic, the Municipality of Pepillo Salcedo, and the local community. This partnership between academia, government, and community, besides ensuring proposals that are meaningful for the town, has provided a methodology that can be applied in other border towns. My independent studio has also been assisted by the Housing Ministry of Dominican Republic to solve the social and environmental challenges of the residents of the Barracks.