Crumbling Land studies “managed retreat”—the intentional abandonment of land and infrastructure due to climate change—and its undermining of traditional conceptions of wilderness, property, and frontiers in North American culture. With insufficient funds to maintain existing infrastructure to protect vulnerable settlements as climate change pressures mount, local governments across North America are unpaving roads, instituting buyback programs for flood-prone communities, and leaving condemned bridges unrepaired. This process undermines traditional conceptions of property ownership, sovereignty, and frontiers which shape views of the continent’s landscape in popular culture. New internal frontiers, created by climate change and organized by managed retreat, will manifest within wider culture far differently than the colonial frontiers of previous eras. Through photography and film of communities undergoing managed retreat, Crumbling Land illustrates climate change’s transformation of the views and cultural perception of the North American landscape.

Noah Gotlib is an architectural designer and researcher based in Toronto. He studied architecture at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, and the Architectural Association (AA) in London, where he gained his MArch/AA Diploma with commendation in 2020. Gotlib has worked for a number of international practices in the United Kingdom and Canada and has taught in the AA’s design studios. Since 2020, he has developed Crumbling Land, a research project on managed retreat and climate migration. The project has received funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, been presented at Columbia University, New York Institute of Technology, and the Architectural Association, and supported through the residency program of the Institute for Public Architecture on Governors Island in New York City.