Francisco Ricardo Marino, Catherine Jessurum Fama. DEB Architecture

D.E.B. Architecture is a Colombian practice based in Barranquilla, founded in 2017 by Francisco Ricardo Marino, with Catherine Jessurum Fama joining as a partner in 2018. Marino graduated in Architecture from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá in 2010, while Jessurum studied Architecture at Universidad de los Andes, also in Bogotá.

DEB Architecture is a multidisciplinary practice spanning architecture, urban design, landscape, and interiors, from objects and furniture to large-scale urban projects. Its work explores the relationship between memory, culture, technology, and context, developing flexible design strategies rooted in Barranquilla and the Colombian Caribbean.

Francisco Ricardo Marino is an architect trained at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and leads DEB’s architecture practice. After graduating in 2010, he joined El Equipo Mazzanti, where he worked on public projects with a strong social dimension. He later worked as an architectural inspector for KEO International Consultants on the new Doha airport in Qatar. In 2013, he returned to Colombia and became Project Director at INSAR, contributing to major educational facilities across Atlántico, Bolívar, and Córdoba. In 2017, he founded DEB to rethink local building typologies and construction methods through contemporary design processes and community-based co-creation.

Catherine Jessurum Fama is an architect trained at Universidad de los Andes and leads DEB’s interior design practice. In 2011, she founded Estudio Paralelo, focused on residential, commercial, and interior projects, and in 2015 co-founded Gres, a homeware brand exploring materials and artisanal techniques. After returning to her native Barranquilla, she joined Marino as a partner in 2018, consolidating DEB’s interior design practice. Her work explores materiality, texture, furniture, and sensory experience, using interior design to shape atmosphere, well-being, and new ways of inhabiting space.