Spoken Silence - Designing for a Catholic Ritual

Abstract

Spoken Silence - Designing for a Catholic Ritual is a thesis of three parts of equal importance: Silence, a Catholic Gesture, and the Design Process. Silence is an essential ingredient in our daily life: a simple and basic need for sanity and survival. The world has become too loud with increased inactivity. People have become insensitive and detached, and the loudness has become so intense that it has developed into noise. Silence then enters, initiating focus, direction, and ultimately peace. But silence is more than the absence of voice or sound. It is not about being mute when communication is required. Nothing needs to be said, yet ideas can be expressed without saying a word. Though quiet, one may be counted. When silent, one should be able to speak not only in words but also through action. It is in silence that one contemplates, finds inner peace, conveys viewpoint, and experiences happiness. It is in silence that action and gesture become louder than ever. Because in silence, action and gesture are to be reassured all the more. In this context is where a diminishing gesture or posture in the Catholic church is to be revived. Kneeling is a Catholic ritual, the exercise of which has been declining due to lack of encouragement and understanding. With that, the meaning and importance behind the practice are becoming lost. This thesis explores silence to encourage the ritual of kneeling through the design of The Garden of Serenity, located East of Auckland. The Garden of Serenity is a community garden inspired by the ritual's significance and aims to revive the practice. The garden allows kneeling to flourish within the Catholic church, but more so for the community to unconsciously kneel within the garden space. The posture comes with great reverence towards worship to God. The bending of the knee means the submission of one's strength to one's creator. This posture is communicated in silence and allows for peace, harmony, beauty, and hope. Kneeling is completing the believer's holistic adoration in God, with the physical action magnifying the spiritual intention. The design processes throughout this thesis are all crucial in their function for manifesting and investigating kneeling as a Catholic ritual. The processes followed in this thesis were initiated by photography and analysis of the act of kneeling. The design development advanced to drawing iterations through trace in sections, resulting in simplified vector lines, spatializing the ritual into forms. Finally, model-making assisted in realizing the gardens in the following compositional studies. The process was cyclic and repeated, allowing for the re-interpretation of early drawings and models via these various media. The thesis will question how a design process can preserve the meaning by designing such a space, garden, both religious and secular. The Garden of Serenity is situated on the periphery of St Luke's Catholic Parish property down to Otara creek in East Auckland. It is a place of meditation, appreciation, and conversations. Native flora will flourish seasonally in various courtyards pierced on the meandering site. The garden's plants will be as diverse as the community they serve, with parishioners and Flat Bush residents able to plant their own - unconsciously weaving ownership, respect, and understanding of the space and each other through time. Hopefully, in the ritual's simple revival, kneeling will eventually enhance faithfulness within the Catholic Church. Kneeling extends through Catholic and secular communities, connected through the architectural spaces of The Garden of Serenity. The garden will nurture a community that grows, provide a space for relationships with one another and the earth, and become a cultural touchstone that unifies the community into the co-existence of spoken silence.