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VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE 17-2, 1995
Richard MACKINNON Annmarie ADAMS, Richard MACKINNON Natalia SHOSTOK Jean-Claude DUPONT Andrée CRÉPEAU, Dale Gilbert JARVIS Robert MELLIN Brian RUSTED
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Introduction
Richard MACKINNON
I often spend time explaining to colleagues and to members of the general public why, as a folklorist, I am interested in studying architecture.1 A stereotype that folklorists study only tales, superstitions or songs, still persists in the Canadian Maritimes perhaps because there are so few folklorists teaching within academic institutions in the region. This special issue of Canadian Folklore Canadien is devoted to vernacular architecture. In much scholarship the term vernacular has been used interchangeably with the terms folk, common, native or non-academic architecture. It is usually placed at the other end of the spectrum from professionnally designed architecture, or what is sometimes termed "high style" architecture. One scholar uses the analogy of a "filter" to define the vernacular in architecture. Kingston Heath argues that a fixed locale or region with is unique character, cultural mix, values, materials, climate and topography can "filter" conventional ideas about architecture wheter they be folk, popular or high style. What results from this filtering process is vernacular architecture–"product of a place, of a people, by a people."2 At present, there is much debate over the confines of this field. An earlier focus on rural, pre-industrial buildings and landscape is changing and a broader vision is emerging which can be largely attributed to the work being done throughout North America by members of the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Since their founding in 1980, the publications from members of this group have continued to push the boundaries of the field to include an interest in contemporary architecture, a focus on urban form, and attention to issues such as gender and class.3 Such a broader vision informs this collection. Together, these essays demonstrate the interesting variety of current approaches to vernacular architecture studies in Canada. As the essays here illustrate, this field of study is not dominated by one academic tribe; rather, it is multi and interdisciplinary. Fields such as Archaeology, Architecture, Architectural History, Communications, Slavic Studies and Folklore are represented in this collection. Other disciplines such as Cultural Geography, Museology and Anthropology could also have been included, as work on vernacular architecture is being conducted in each of these fields. The cultural landscape and its vernacular buildings are now receiving the attention of a variety of disciplines as well as government departments interested in the housing needs of Canadians. The articles in this collection address a number of themes including architectural change, ethnicity and gender. Those who have contributed also focus attention on analysis of urban form and photography as a research method. Annmarie Adams and Pieter Sijpkes explore the way in which residents of urban Ville St-Laurent changed and modified their wartime dwellings to suit their own needs. Richard MacKinnon examines the traditions of moving and altering houses in a rural environment–the Codroy Valley, in southwestern Newfoundland. The focus of the paper by Natalia Shostok is on ethnicity and its influence on vernacular architecture. She provides a spatial analysis of the Ukrainian peasant home in central Ukraine, offering an ethnographic study for those interested in understanding antecedent areas of Canadian Ukrainian vernacular architecture. Jean-Claude Dupont of Université Laval provides a survey of French Canadian architecture in Atlantic, Central and Western Canada. Andrée Crépeau and David Christianson offer an archaeological case study of pre-expulsion Acadian architecture in the Maritimes, a topic about which there is little published material to date. Gender also emerges as a useful category, nfluencing the design process. Dale Jarvis, in his study of a Methodist church in Peterborough, Ontario, examines the way in which gender structured and segregated the world of a late nineteenth-century Ontario conrgegation. He shows how a gendered architecture structured ideas about space, reinforcing ideas about segregation. The architectural design of this church helped to distance women from male spheres of influence in this sacred world. While much vernacular architecture research until the recent past focused on rural dwellings, the analysis of urban form is an important avenue of current inquiry. Robert Mellin, a practising architect, studies the older residential neighbourhoods of St. Jonh's, Newfoundland offering sensitive and concrete strategies for urban planners and designers who attempt to redevelop the housing of such communities. He analyses the architectural and landscape patterns of the pre and post-1892 fire, offering insights into sensible vernacular planning and design. Finally, Brian Rusted addresses a fundamental topic in all vernacular architecture fieldwork: the use of photography as a research method. In "Framing a House, Photography and the Performance of Heritage," Rusted closely examines the role of photography in the heritage restoration of an outport community in Newfoundland. In doing so, he explores different conceptions of what makes a good photograph and forces vernacular architecture scholars and all ethnographers to think more deeply about local knowledge, representation, and fieldwork. Together these essays reflect a variety of approaches being undertaken in the study of Canadian vernacular architecture today. I hope they will challenge readers to think more deeply about our vernacular landscape and to continue to push the boundaries of this developing field of inquiry.
1. I am very grateful to UCCB's Bachelor of Arts Community Studies program for allowing Moïra Ross, research assistant, to help bring this collection of essays together as part of her work experience. 2. Kingston, William Heath, "Defining the Nature of Vernacular", Material Culture, 20(1988), 5. 3. See for example, the publications of papers presented at their conferences: Camille Wells, ed., Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture (Annapolis: Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1982); Camille Wells, ed., Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, II (Columbia: University of Missouri Press for the Vernacular Architecture Forum, 1986); Thomas Carter and Bernard L. Herman, Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, IV (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991); Elizabeth Collins Cromley and Carter L. Hudgins, ed. Gender, Class and Shelter: Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, V (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1995).
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