Abstract
El Triunfo, Baja California Sur (Mexico), presents a compelling case for preserving localized spatial history as an important tool in achieving tripartite (environmental, social, and economic) sustainable development. Today, El Triunfo is a mining town of less than 400 people nestled in the desertic La Laguna Sierra along an isolated stretch of Mexico’s Highway 1. Its current solitude, however, belies the complex history embodied by the town’s built environment. When silver mining reached a production apex between the 1850s and 1880s, the town’s population grew to nearly 10,000 people as miners and merchants (supplying goods and services) migrated from other parts of Mexico, England, Italy, France, China and the United States. Each group brought its own sociocultural spatial practices of producing and using the built environment: the whole of El Triunfo’s spatial identity became greater than the sum of its component parts. Now, with ever-increasing tourism-driven market demand for spatial experiences rooted in site-specific geography, sensitivity to social groups’ sociocultural values, and urban history, the town has become a locus of identity-based spatial production. Over the last 10 years, private foundations and government agencies have begun to redevelop El Triunfo’s built environment: Projects like the restoration of La Ramona, a 19th century 47 meter tall mine smokestack, and the newly inaugurated Silver Route Museum, prioritize the town’s spatial history as a main traffic driver, but this success has also sparked new construction and business openings that, left unregulated, threaten to undermine long-term sustainable redevelopment goals.
Presenters
Benjamin A. BrossAssistant Professor, School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Spatial Identity, Urban History, Tripartite Sustainable Development, Placemaking
