Comatose and Ricorso An Ecclesial Exploration

Abstract

This proposal is based on an examination of abandoned church buildings in Saskatchewan, one of Canada’s prairie provinces, that were built during the second wave of immigration to that province. It proceeds with an inquiry into their architectural purpose at a time when they are no longer in use, and examines the meaning of these places as ruins, as mnemonic devices for contemporary man, and as a reminder of loss. For one of these sacred structures, the Swedish Covenant Church, the theory of the cycle of history formulated by the eighteenth century philosopher Giambattista Vico is used as a conceptual model to investigate a way of resolving the disunity that has developed between matter, memory and spirit. It concludes with an outline for a project that provides an architectural response to the questions posed.

Keywords

• Abandoned
• Heritage
• Matter
• Memory
• Imagination