I contributed this chapter to Design and the Vernacular: Interpretations for contemporary architectural practice and theory, edited by Paul Memmott, John Ting, Tim O'Rourke and Marcel Vellinga (Bloomsbury: 2024).
Rarotonga’s historical coral churches are both architectural vernacular and living cultural landscapes. Built in the mid to late-19th century, the churches have been variously modified over time. This chapter explores how these changes are perceived by those that experience them, and what role their physical fabric has in constructions of collective identity.
Church place conservation is under pressure in a transforming environment. Contemporary challenges of climate change and Covid-19 exacerbate other modern societal changes of religious heterogeneity, population mobility and international connectivity. This raises questions of who has a voice in processes of change, as congregations are less representative of the disparate communities who see historic church vernacular – their living practice and physical forms – as part of their ancestral identity. Considering church places as strands in a web of Indigenous cultural landscapes in the Cook Islands may open new avenues for their future sustainment.
Design and the Vernacular is available online and can also be purchased in hardcopy.
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