Spiritual Cascades

Spiritual Cascades is a 296,000-square-meter agritourism master plan we designed for a 2024 competition in Samana, Dominican Republic, in collaboration with Kurt Cheang and Zida Liu. The brief asked for an off-grid farm that could function as both a working agricultural community and a place travelers could visit. Our entry won first place.

The site begins as a forested hillside near the coast. We terraced the landscape to make it cultivable, secured it against rainfall and landslide, and threaded a meandering water system through it, connecting freshwater reservoirs and retention ponds across each parcel. The terraces frame ten owner households, each with a main house (200 to 400 square meters), a guest house, a shared kitchen and common area, agricultural storage and barn space, parking, and dedicated staff residences. We designed the staff units at the same level of care as the lodgings. The workers who run the farm live in the same architectural language as the owners.

A community center sits at the top of the site. It is where the off-grid community meets the broader Samana community, hosting farmers markets, cultural events, and the Dominican carnival. The project is shaped by the local context, not separated from it.

The design uses vernacular construction (local materials and building techniques adapted to the Dominican climate) and integrates self-sustaining systems for water, energy, and food. Site soil from excavation returns to the terraces. Solar panels carry the electrical load. Crop cultivation feeds inhabitants, workers, and guests. Existing trees are preserved as carbon stores.

Spiritual Cascades will not be built. The original development path closed after the competition. What it offers is a design idea: a small, integrated, locally grounded approach to agritourism that reads as luxurious and as community-minded at the same time.