Three Modes Of Witnessing

Abstract

This thesis is an accumulation of probing exercises about how vernacular architecture and stoic philosophy, if combined, can develop a grammar for witnessing a particular cultural landscape, conveying insights and reflections that facts alone cannot. Tested through the Acadian heritage, with a focus on their expulsion history, it explores the vulnerability of faith, the fertility of the land, and the stability of the spirit. These three explorations resulted into Three Modes of Witnessing: the Sinking Chapel, the Walled Garden, and the Gumbo House. The first two are situated at Horton Landing Nova Scotia, and the third is at Bayou Teche, Louisiana. While the interventions are inseparable from the Acadian heritage, they offer a small opening for 'reading' other places. It provokes a dialogue that, regardless of our fundamental human differences, we all navigate and 'witness' a similar human condition in which varying degrees of faith, overcoming, and peace coexist.