PROJECTS

The "Río Turbio / Valle Ribera" project, led by DisLocal and FAU-UCV, is an immersive pedagogical program and research workshop focused on the Turbio Valley in Lara, Venezuela. The initiative, which earned recognition at the XIII Ibero-American Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU) for its community-driven, frugal design approaches, involved over 100 participants in on-site research and design. You can find more details in the original project description (see left menu on desktop version. 

Understanding one of the capital city's most emblematic cases as a natural mismanaged environmental assets. María Beatriz (Mabe) García Rincón and Ricardo Sanz Sosa present "El Guaire River" as a living subject possessing legal and landscape sovereignty, moving away from viewing it merely as an engineering problem. Their proposal advocates for new governance structures with strategic ecological interventions, calculating a $25 million per kilometer "restitution value" to address historical, state-led environmental degradation.

University Central of Venezuela partnered with Dislocal in 2023-2025 to develop three summer programs for architecture, design, planning and policy students. The purpose was to study on-site political-socio-economic contexts vis-a-vis on-site development. Students initiate seed projects with project conceptualizations through small budgets. 

Dislocal, in conjunction with the Faculty of Architecture and its Barquisimeto campus, established a working agreement with the Palavecino Municipality. This partnership aims to accompany the 7 de Octubre community in the reflection and projection of its habitat, as well as in the construction of a Community Center intended for civic gathering, cultural exchange, and the neighborhood's collective life.

The partnership between DisLocal Lab through Mabe Garcia, Antonella DiTrani and Bjorn Bertelesen (Holberg Prize) and Sorbonne Nouvelle University. It utilizes ethnographic research to analyze how communities reclaim and occupy urban spaces during periods of transition. By documenting these interactions, we translate granular field data into actionable strategies for governance and public asset management. We worked with Cesure organization in Le Marais, France. 

DisLocal and Caracas' Catholic University Andres Bello (UCAB’s) Fashion and Architecture School have launched the Diploma in Cultural Eco-Design to merge design approaches with social sciences through an immersive program connecting global creatives to Venezuelan roots for sustainable design projects. The curriculum, focusing on regional materials like Tintorero clay and Quíbor textiles, connects fashion and design. For more information, please switch to the desktop version, and click "Diploma" on the left-side menu. 

DisLocal led a comprehensive historical research and archival preservation project to rediscover, document, and honor the Casa Mara.  Rather than physically rebuilding the structures, the design studio focused on saving its architectural legacy from obscurity through  a Field Expedition where architect Juan Carlos Castillo Lagrange (the son of the original architect) and photographer Julio César Mesa, travelled to San Felipe, Yaracuy.

Since 2015, members of DisLocal had been studying the informal settlement in a high altitude mountain that was formed after a Farm house closed and its workers settled into their own housing not too far from the original plantation site. The informal settlement is nestled next to a UNESCO protected colonial style municipality ads part of Caracas. 

Khristian Ceballos, Ricardo Sanz, Rodrigo Marin, Daniel Otero worked on consolidating a pedagogical design for an experimental classroom during the pandemic. During Pilot 1 of the instructional design (hybrid format): the team tested field study in an informal settlement through which Rafael Machado and Mabe Garcia (2015) initiated with University Simon Bolivar and Franco Micucci. After spending 16 weeks with students from UCV during the pandemic, the team came up with community-led design proposals showing architecture can serve as the bridge of sociological diagnoses. 

Cauce y Acrobacia is an interdisciplinary initiative by DisLocal Lab that integrates sociology, architecture, and landscape design to address urban challenges in Venezuela. By employing ethnographic field research and participatory mapping, the project develops climate-resilient infrastructure and sustainable interventions within informal settlements. Ultimately, it bridges rigorous academic inquiry with grassroots action to foster decentralized governance and long-term community empowerment.