Landscapes of Ruination: Participatory and Community Stewardship of Industrial Heritage - Incite at Columbia University

Incubated Project

Landscapes of Ruination: Participatory and Community Stewardship of Industrial Heritage

Waterfront image of a fallen silo in Chambeque

What happens when the places that built our communities begin to crumble? In Lota, Chile, the abandoned Chambeque Colliery—once a powerful symbol of labor and industry—now sits vulnerable to time and rising seas.

This coastal mining site is on Chile's tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage designation, yet it lacks the preservation policies and resources it needs. Most efforts have focused on protecting the ruins as they are, rather than reimagining what they could become. Landscapes of Ruination takes a different approach. The project pilots a method called "curated decay," which embraces change rather than resisting it. Through low-impact installations, community mapping, and participatory projects, the initiative helps the site evolve while honoring its past. The waterfront—once the site of dangerous undersea coal mining, now a gathering place for families and young people—becomes a space for conversations across generations about memory, risk, and what resilience really means.

Working with former miners, local leaders, women's organizations, academics, and city officials, the project builds a model for heritage management that can be replicated anywhere. It offers a framework to visualize decay not as loss alone, but as an opportunity for new values, uses, and understandings of places shaped by climate, memory, and community. 

Team Leads

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    Nicolás Moraga Co-Lead

    Nicolás Moraga is an architect and preservationist with an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation and a BA in Architecture from Universidad del Biobío. He currently serves as Assistant Professor and Academic Coordinator at Universidad San Sebastián Architecture School in Concepción, Chile.

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    Magdalena Novoa Co-Lead

    Magdalena Novoa is Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the College of Fine & Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she is affiliated with Women and Gender in Global Perspectives and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She holds a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from the London School of Communication, and BAs in Fine Arts from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and in Education from Universidad Gabriela Mistral.

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    Elizabeth Aguilera Co-Lead

    Elizabeth Aguilera is a community leader dedicated to heritage preservation and sustainable development in Lota, Chile. She serves as President of the Citizen Board of Heritage, Culture and Tourism of Lota and as a board member of the Citizen Association of Lota, both local NGOs promoting community participation, heritage preservation, and economic development through sustainable tourism.

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