Description

The Rural Witnesses exhibition is a living archive that catalogs and celebrates these spaces, recognizing them not as static relics but as active participants in a narrative of transformation. These witnesses, whether they are weathered farmhouses or expansive fields, carry the imprints of generational labor, cultural heritage, and environmental shifts. They whisper tales of struggle and survival, of oppression and resilience, illuminating the complex and deeply rooted relationships between people and land in the rural South.

By retracing the layers of this rural vernacular, we aim to ask not only what these spaces are, but also how they have evolved through community knowledge, local materials, and the natural limits that shaped them. While the "why they are the way they are" is well-documented, the deeper exploration of this exhibition lies in uncovering how these slow, evolutionary processes—driven by scarcity, climate, and folk ingenuity—created spaces defined by necessity and adaptation. The paradox emerges when technology, urbanization, and other forces intervene, challenging the very essence of the vernacular. Instead of proposing top-down reimaginations that risk detaching these places from their roots, we explore how understanding the policies, power dynamics, and disparities that influenced their development can inspire more grounded, community-driven visions for the future. This approach respects the vernacular as an organic outcome, embracing its history while considering its potential evolution.

Through this exhibition, we aim to explore how rural architecture and life can evolve in response to technological innovation and global economic pressures while remaining grounded in the social and environmental context of the South. The exhibition considers how the forces of climate, geography, culture, and economy intersect to shape the future of rural spaces. Through this lens, we ask: How can new planning strategies and architectural imagination foster resilience and economic growth? How can rural spaces—long defined by their isolation and often by poverty—become dynamic centers of innovation and cultural preservation?

This exhibition calls for entries that recontextualize these questions, turning our eyes towards rural spaces as both repositories of memory and sites for future possibilities. The exhibition moves from documentation to speculation, weaving together past and future. By examining the architectural, environmental, and cultural heritage of the South, the exhibition calls for a reimagining of rural life that balances preservation with progress, honoring the lessons of the past while embracing the potential of the future.