The landscape is not natural as we perceive it to be; it is a product of human thought and action. As such manipulation occurs, the very artifact from which Canadians derive their national identity is being lost. Preservation of that identity and history now requires that human-made artifacts no longer act independently of the seemingly natural landscape. Instead, a truly contemporary understanding of our surroundings must engage the opposition between nature and artifice. This thesis investigates how architecture could become a didactic spectator of contemporary surroundings which integrate and announce the relationship between the natural and artificial, while also preserve and reveal memory native to a site.