Creating modern form from an ancient typology automatically speaks to the idea of opposition and dialectic. The monastery, as an architectural and social entity, is based around the central function of enlightenment through quietude and reflection. In the attempt to re-place this almost anachronistic way of life into an age of intense information it seems important to be aware of such oppositions, so that the‘seeker’ understands one facet only through the complete awareness and contemplation of the other.

It is in this dual nature of the world that one begins to perceive a cyclic process where the opposites gradually turn in to meet each other; one extreme not only presupposes the other but in fact becomes the other. The division between natural and artificial becomes blurred, void starts to define mass, and an end simply becomes another beginning.

The journey to self-enlightenment may seem linear in form, but it is in the resolution of the apparent contradictions that one appreciates one’s place in the world.

This project was completed in the winter of 2000. Working in groups of three, we were required to design an urban monastery, a place of sanctuary amid the fast pace of the city.

Our concept was to create a building that sat quietly within the landscape linear in form with the three major spaces of the building (The Church, the Cloister and the arrival area) defined and visible from the street and above. Water, representing life and light ran the length of the building through the stretching corridors and the church and pooling into the center of the cloister as reflecting pool to meditate on. This water was always followed by light and above the stream ran a skylight, bringing in natural light from above.

Gabion baskets were used as cladding in the arrival building and the church as a filter for the light as well as a reference to the retaining walls needed to hold back the earth in the long linear portions of the building. This material was designed to be placed like a screen in front of the spaces to bring in the light and block out the views to the city below.