2025 Theses Master's

Landscapes of Ruination. Assessment of Industrial Ruins Through Emergent Values. The case of Chambeque Historic Site in Lota, Chile

Moraga-Herrera, Nicolás

Industrial ruined sites represent a complex heritage category, where material loss, landscape transformation and social reinterpretation challenges traditional approaches to heritage assessment and management. However, Industrial ruins not only implies physical deterioration, but also generates new emerging values associated with memory, ecology, social attachment and reappropriation. In this context, conventional heritage assessment methods tend to focus on material and architectural criteria, neglecting these dynamic and multi-scale aspects related with deindustrialized territories.

This study proposes a methodology to evaluate the ruined industrial sites, based on a specific case study; the Ruins of Chambeque Historic Site, in Lota, Chile, through an approach that integrates landscape evolution, material transformation and emerging values that arise in the process of ruin. Based on the contributions of Tim Edensor, Alice Mah and Caitlin DeSilvey, the method considers the aesthetics of deterioration, working memory, ecological regeneration and the potential for future uses and ruin management.

It proposes a multiscale analysis comprising three dimensions: (1) the transformation of the industrial landscape over time, identifying losses and new spatial dynamics; (2) the characterization of the material ruin, its processes of change and spontaneous interventions; and (3) the identification of emerging values that allow new management strategies, from the curatorship of deterioration to the social reappropriation of space.

Through this approach, the study seeks to broaden the criteria for heritage valuation, proposing an evaluation model adaptable to other industrial sites in ruins. By integrating aesthetic, ecological and social dimensions in the valuation of industrial heritage, it opens the possibility of developing more sensitive and sustainable management strategies, capable of recognizing and enhancing the dynamic character of these spaces.