The Department of Architecture and the Miami Beach Urban Studios are pleased to present Ancestral Apparatus, a research exhibition by Daniela Atencio and Claudio Rossi that explores the water-harvesting reservoirs of La Guajira, the desert territory shared between Colombia and Venezuela. The exhibition maps and reinterprets more than 300 jagüeyes, earthen water reservoirs shaped through centuries of collective knowledge. These ancestral infrastructures sustain life in one of the most arid regions of the continent, and embody the profound entanglement of ecology, culture, and survival.
For this installation, a curated selection of jagüeyes becomes the foundation for a spatial and material translation. Through mapping, modeling, and fabrication, the project reveals these reservoirs as living archives that register cycles of drought and abundance, exposing the intelligence embedded in the desert’s material culture. Ancestral Apparatus reimagines the jagüey as both research tool and territorial device—an architecture of memory, adaptation, and transformation that links ancestral knowledge with contemporary modes of representation and design.
Daniela Atencio, M.DesR. Visiting Teaching Professor, Florida International University. Associate Professor, Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.
Claudio Rossi, PhD Visiting Teaching Professor, Florida International University. Associate Professor, Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá.
Join us for this exhibition exploring how vernacular infrastructures continue to shape landscapes, communities, and practices of resilience across the Americas.
Opening: Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Time: 5:30 PM
Location: Washington Gallery Miami Beach Urban Studios 420 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139
