Darguin Fortuna, The Architect's Biography

Darguin Fortuna is a registered architect, adjunct professor 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 professor 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 Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Florida & Pennsylvania. In 2016, he was awarded the Henry Adams Medal and AIA Certificate of Merit. He also won the 2022 AIA People’s Choice Award for the Film “The Change We Seek”, which focused on the issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in the field of architecture. Mr. Fortuna is also a founding principal of Flow Design Architects, a multidisciplinary architecture practice focused on the design of memorable 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; he calls it “Flow Moments”.

Mr. Fortuna was born in a small farm town in Jima Abajo, La Vega, in the 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. The same year 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 now ex-wife was pregnant with their second child, he began to study for the Architecture Registration Exams. While most people thought that was the worst time to take the 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 renowned 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.

His journey as a young entrepreneurial architect of a minority background, has led him to find his life purpose in making architecture, construction and engineering more accessible to others from similar background. He launched Flow Design Architect’s YouTube channel which has over 20,000 active subscribers most of which range from the ages of 15 to 50.

Darguin currently resides in Leominster, MA. He is currently the AIA Small Firm Exchange board member for the State of Massachusetts for 2022-2024 as we all as Young Architect Representative for the state. He also continues to lecture and teach at the Boston Architectural College. Most recently he was invited to the Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester, MA as well as Angelas Daycare in Peabody, MA where he taught architectural classes to preschool, 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. After winning the People’s Choice Award for the AIA Film Challenge in 2022, he was invited by the North Carolina AIA Chapter State conference to speak about the film and his office’s mission of increasing diversity in AEC.

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