The Deborah J. Norden Fund 2025

This year, the League awarded one $7,500 grant to Catalina Cabral-Framiñan who will pursue her research project “Industrial Ghosts: Revitalizing Japan’s Abandoned Industrial Landscapes” which investigates industrial reuse strategies in rural Japan.

“Industrial Ghosts: Revitalizing Japan’s Abandoned Industrial Landscapes”

Catalina Cabral-Framiñan will explore three sites in rural Japan: Sado Island Gold Mine located in Niigata; Ishikari Coal Basin in Hokkaido; and the Setouchi region’s “Art Islands” of Naoshima, Inujima, and Teshima. As Cabral-Framiñan describes her project: 

“The landscapes of Japan bear the marks of a profound ongoing transformation—one that reflects the complex interplay of economic migration, industrial decline, and the after effects of colonial and wartime histories. Japan’s population continues to gravitate toward urban capitals such as Tokyo, leaving their rural communities hollowed out. Industrial infrastructures in many of these places—especially those pertaining to extraction—were once the beating hearts of the communities but now lay abandoned, either due to lack of continuing investment or labor … How can abandoned industrial sites reconcile their histories of exploitation and pollution with aspirations for renewal? What role can architecture play in bridging the past and future of these spaces while addressing the urgent need for regional revitalization in Japan’s countryside?”

Exploring both successfully repurposed industrial sites and currently disused infrastructures, Cabral-Framiñan will conduct fieldwork, archival research, and interviews with architects, historians, and local community members. Drawing on an academic background in both history and design, she will contextualize architectural interventions within regional historical and social narratives and propose new reuse programs and strategies. Addressing global issues at the intersection of urbanization, industrial decline, and rural depopulation, Cabral-Framiñan seeks to underscore architecture’s role in crafting equitable and resilient solutions to post-industrial challenges.

Catalina Cabral-Framiñan is currently a fifth-year student at the University of Miami, where she is pursuing a Bachelor of Architecture at the School of Architecture and a bachelor’s in history with a minor in classics at the College of Arts and Sciences.