Faro del Encuentro Resiliente

In February 2024, Viña del Mar experienced the deadliest wildfires in Chile’s history, destroying over 14,000 homes and displacing thousands. Faro del Encuentro Resiliente responds to that disaster through a collaboration between MIT’s Urban Risk Lab, directed by associate professor Miho Mazereeuw, and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María to co-design a multifunctional public art installation in the Lomas Latorre neighborhood—a community of 1,708 people facing high social vulnerability in the aftermath.

Building on the Urban Risk Lab’s PREPHub framework for community-centered resilient infrastructure, the project engages residents as co-designers through workshops in which they map risks, memories, and aspirations through drawing, mapping, and narrative. The resulting installation functions as a vibrant civic space in daily life—animated by community art, storytelling, and cultural expression—while also providing essential services during emergencies. The design process pays particular attention to gender-inclusive approaches and the safety of women-headed households, older adults, and Indigenous families disproportionately affected by the fires.

The twelve-month project (July 2026–June 2027) moves from community engagement and storytelling through co-design and prototyping to co-building and public installation. A short documentary film will capture the process, with screenings planned at both a public launch in Viña del Mar and a lecture event at MIT.

Architect and landscape architect Miho Mazereeuw is one of the mission directors of the MIT Climate Project, an Institute-wide effort to address the world’s accelerating climate crisis, and an associate professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. 

Mazereeuw leads the Urban Risk Lab, which focuses on designing resilient cities that are prepared for risks such as earthquakes, flooding, cyclones, and heat stress. The multi-disciplinary team engages in action research through extensive fieldwork and community workshops, both locally and abroad, to meet the needs of diverse cultures and contexts. The Urban Risk Lab aspires to change the course of current global development trends through a radical shift in education and action, with the goal of increasing resilience and proactively embedding preparedness in this rapidly urbanizing world.

Biography: MIT Architecture
Websites: MIT Urban Risk Lab and MIT Climate Project

Larisa Ovalles Paulino has nearly a decade of experience in disaster recovery and climate adaptation, specializing in post-disaster housing strategies and the advancement of local preparedness through community-centered planning and design. Paulino develops tools that integrate resilience into local planning systems and designs community resilience hubs, both across the United States and Latin America.

Biography: MIT Urban Risk Lab

Architect and engineer Sebastián Laclabère is an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM). Focused on urban design, Laclabère’s research includes architecture and emergency, socionatural disasters, relief architecture, public space design, and the role of memory in reconstruction.

Jorge León Canales is an architect from the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM) and an urban planner with a PhD in architecture and urban planning from the University of Melbourne. He is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture, and his research focuses on urban planning and its relationship to disaster risk management. He has led projects funded by Chile’s National Research and Development Agency (ANID) and other external organizations, addressing topics such as tsunami evacuation, disaster resilience, and territorial planning. He is a Principal Investigator at the Center for Integrated Research on Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN).

Macarena Barrientos holds a PhD in architecture and urbanism, a master’s degree in sustainable urban planning, and a degree in architecture from Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM). She participated as a Co-Investigator in the FOVI project (230036, 2024), “Design Research for Disaster and Climate Change Resilience on the Coasts of Chile.” She has research experience in projects related to urban territories and gender perspectives, including “Methodological Shifts with a Gender Perspective: New Foundations for Architectural Education” (OEA221, 2022); “The City of Care: A New Perspective on Public Space Induced by COVID-19, with a Focus on Children” (PI_LII_2021_111, UTFSM, 2021–22); and “Public Spaces of Fear and Care: Gender-Based Methodologies for Inclusive Urban Design in Concepción” (VRID 2021000263, UDEC, 2021–22).

Melissa Pozatti holds both a PhD and a master’s degree in design from Universidad Federal del Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil (UFRGS). She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Design Engineering at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM), where her research focuses on inclusive design, additive manufacturing, sustainability, and gender perspectives. In recent years, she has secured funding and led research projects related to digital fabrication and waste valorization. Most recently, she was awarded the National FONDART 2025 project, “Co-design of Assistive Technologies with Groups of Persons with Disabilities through Digital Fabrication Technologies,” as Principal Investigator. She has also participated as a Co-Investigator in projects related to co-design, sustainability, and gender studies. Professionally, she is an industrial designer with more than 12 years of experience in product development, including household products, packaging, residential and commercial furniture, and temporary architecture.

Biography: Department of Design Engineering of the Federico Santa María Technical University (UTSFM)
Social: LinkedIn

Paulina Santander holds a PhD in psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (PUCV) and a master’s degree in communication and education from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She is co-founder and co-director of the Gender Observatory in Science and Engineering at Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María (UTFSM) and leads the gender-focused research component of the InES Gender Project (UTFSM/ANID). She has served as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on numerous gender-focused research projects, including “Diagnosis of the Variables Shaping Educational Pathways of Female Students in STEM Fields” (PI_LII_24_27) and “Serendipity for Equitable Recommendation in Digital Markets: Application to Associations Among Women Microentrepreneurs During the Pandemic” (COVID815, ANID). She also teaches the course Feminist Theories and Gender Equity in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at UTFSM.

Miho Mazereeuw, MIT Faculty Lead. Academic and design supervision.

Larisa Ovalles Paulino, MIT Project Lead. Research, Project Coordination; Design Development; Co-creation.   

Sebastián Laclabère, UTFSM Project Lead. Research, Project Coordination; Design Development; Co-creation.

Dr. Jorge León Canales, UTFSM Project Coordinator and Technical Research and Hazard Mitigation Lead.

Macarena Barrientos, UTFSM Community Participation, Education and Gender-inclusive Design Coordination.

Melissa Pozatti, UTFSM Inclusive Design and Sustainability Lead. Co-design, Prototyping, and Fabrication.

Paulina Santander, UTFSM Community Engagement Lead. Evaluation of social impact and inclusivity.

MIT and UTFSM Students: Research, Development, Design, and Fabrication Assistance.

Faro del Encuentro Resiliente is supported by a faculty grant from the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology and co-presented by CAST and the MIT Urban Risk Lab’s PrepHub.