Design Map · Eindhoven
Swallow Me Water
Graduation project by Rafaela Aguilar Bostock at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
Mexico City is collapsing under its own weight. The depletion of underground water reserves and the historical draining of the valley’s lakes have left the ground increasingly unstable, while sinkholes expose the political failures embedded beneath the city’s surface. ‘Swallow Me Water’ reconstructs these ruptures. Fragments of asphalt, rubble and debris are reinterpreted in clay, resubmerged in water and allowed to collapse before being reassembled into sculptural forms supported by timber beams. Embedded within them are traces of the city’s urban fabric alongside the designer’s own memories. Rather than monumentalising ruin, the installation adopts the layered visual language of Mexico City itself, where repair, irony and joy coexist amid the debris of systemic failure.