Darguin Fortuna, Biography

Darguin Fortuna is a registered architect, urban planner, teacher and passionate sustainability advocate. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Boston Architectural College where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He is currently an adjunct instructor at the BAC where he engages students in the act of place making and critical thinking. He is an NCARB certificate holder with architectural registrations in Florida, Massachusetts, and Maine. In 2016, he was awarded the Henry Adams Medal and AIA Certificate of Merit. Mr. Fortuna is also a founding principal of Flow Design Architects, a multidisciplinary architecture practice focused on the design of memorable and educational experiences through the use of materials, colors, light and form. Flow is a place for designers who want to express their ideas freely. He explains that Flow is named after the engaged and immersive state of mind in which good design is put together.

Mr. Fortuna was born in a small farm town in La Vega, Dominican Republic. He is the oldest of three children. He began his formal architectural education in 2008 at the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. However, his desires to become an architect started at an early age playing in the backyard creating spaces, cities and monuments for ants made out of stone and sand. For most of his life Mr. Fortuna did not know his biological father. In 2017, they met for the first time. Until then, Mr. Fortuna was raised by his grandparents and single mother. Finally, in 2010, Darguin came to live in the United States.

Mr. Fortuna recalls the struggle of juggling between English as a Second Language classes at the North Shore Community College in Lynn, MA and his late night shifts at Wendy’s Restaurant in Salem, MA. Regardless of having to start over upon moving to the United States, his desires to become an architect kept him going. Darguin worked hard through the ESL program and graduated with honors. In 2012, after finishing his English studies, he transferred to the BAC.

At the BAC he began to expand his understanding of architecture as a means to give back to the communities around him. The BAC fostered and fueled his passion towards becoming a socially responsible architect.

After graduating from the BAC, Darguin continued his path towards licensure. In 2016, While his wife was pregnant with their second child, he began to study for the AREs. While most people thought that was the worst time to take those exams, Mr. Fortuna persevered. He passed all 6 exams in just over a year. That was when he decided it was time to pursue his dreams and run his own practice. In 2017, he opened Flow Design Architects with a few other talented designers and friends he met along the way.

Mr. Fortuna currently runs Flow Design Architects with his partner Marcos Severino, a young Dominican he met while attending the Universidad Autonoma. By 2017, Marcos had already moved to Massachusetts and studied at the BAC. On occasion, the two had even joked about opening a firm together in the future. It was meant to be. Prior to Flow Design, Darguin had worked at renown national and international firms such as Paul Lukez Architecture, DiGiorgio Associates and CBT Architects. To this day, he continues to have meaningful relationships with mentors and former colleagues.

Darguin currently resides in Salem, MA with his wife, Caitlin, his son, Darguin Jr., his daughters, Emmalin Grace and Eviana Isabel. He currently teaches at the BAC and also engages in tutoring and mentoring young BAC and high school students. Most recently he was invited to the Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester where he taught architectural classes to middle school and high school students. In 2018, he was selected among 600 applicants for the NCARB Re-Think Tank Committee. The committee engaged in conversations and research regarding the future of architecture and the current challenges and opportunities triggered by advances in technology and society as a whole. To continue reading Darguin Fortuna, The Biography please download the document here.

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