Neftali X. Luciano Castillo

From the historic town of San Germán, Puerto Rico, Neftali is an architectural designer with a deep passion for historic preservation and architectural documentation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Architecture, along with a minor in Structural Framework and Assemblages, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico in Ponce. Throughout his academic journey, Neftali developed a wide range of design proposals, including pavilions, apartment buildings, mixed-use developments, a master plan for a sports complex, a fish market, and several adaptive reuse projects, all of which reflect his growing interest in context-sensitive design. During his internship at Marvel’s San Juan office, Neftali further refined his skills in thoughtful and culturally grounded architecture. For his capstone project, he explored the intersection of material innovation and heritage preservation through a proposal titled “Debunking the Myths of Wood: Mass Timber Contemporary Architecture to the Rescue of Cultural Heritage.” This project centered on the use of mass timber in contemporary design as a tool to preserve and reinterpret Puerto Rico’s wooden architectural legacy. Following this academic work, Neftali joined a Rapid Documentation Project in Conservation for Historical Architecture of Wood at Risk in Puerto Rico, led by the Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico. There, he contributed to the documentation of two historic buildings, using advanced techniques such as photogrammetry and LiDAR to record existing conditions and support long-term conservation efforts. Neftali’s approach to architecture combines the integration of new structures with the preservation of historic buildings, aiming to harmonize contemporary interventions with the surrounding cultural and natural landscape. Through his work, he seeks to elevate the architectural value of heritage sites while fostering community engagement and public education about the importance of preservation.