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M2535 Vocational Village

Santiago, Dominican Republic

M2535 Vocational Village was conceived for the Cibao region as a connected response to several constraints: unreliable clean water, limited vocational training, gaps in healthcare, and fragile food systems.

Aerial photograph of the M2535 Vocational Village campus, productive fields, aquaponics systems, and completed buildings in Santiago

The story

A village where water, food, health, and training support one another.

Local and volunteer builders assembling formwork and masonry walls at the M2535 Vocational Village construction site

M2535 Vocational Village was conceived for the Cibao region as a connected response to several constraints: unreliable clean water, limited vocational training, gaps in healthcare, and fragile food systems. The master plan combines ceramic water filtration, aquaponics and greenhouses, classrooms and workshops, a clinic, and a community center within a social-business model intended to help support operations. Each component is useful alone, but the design’s larger purpose is the relationship between them. Water systems serve health and agriculture; productive landscapes become training grounds; enterprise can help fund community services.

Developed over several phases by Journeyman International with the Santiago Agriculture and Water Company, field photographs document construction and completed portions of the campus, though they do not establish that every element of the larger village plan was delivered. Its lesson is systemic and local: durable development rarely comes from one building. A clear physical framework can help an organization coordinate infrastructure, education, production, and care so investments reinforce one another and more of the resulting capability remains in the community.

Field record

A village taking shape.

Field photographs trace the work from masonry and volunteer construction to interior fit-out, completed facilities, and productive aquaponics infrastructure.

Wide view of masonry walls, timber scaffolding, and builders across the M2535 Vocational Village construction site
Masonry walls and timber scaffolding defining one of the campus buildings during construction.
Two volunteer builders standing with shovels beside concrete blocks and a mixer at the M2535 construction site
Two volunteer builders during masonry work on site.
The M2535 project team gathered beside a small timber and masonry building under construction
The project team gathered beside a small building under construction.
Interior fit-out underway inside a large M2535 workshop with a steel frame and naturally lit roof
Interior fit-out underway beneath the completed steel roof structure.
Aerial view of a completed yellow M2535 campus building beside the internal road and surrounding fields
A completed campus building beside the internal road.
Aerial view of M2535 aquaponics ponds, shaded growing systems, greenhouses, and cultivated landscape
Aquaponics ponds and shaded growing structures within the productive landscape.