L’ABRI Cynthia Leung ‘We live betwixt and between. Between life and death, history and future, the heaven and the earth, the decided and undecided.’ The French word L’Abri means ‘shelter’. Based on a model that began in 1955 in Switzerland, where a Christian couple opened their alpine home in faith for youngsters to find life answers to their questions, the new L’Abri positions in between as an international study centre, a residential community and a retreat for the deep search of blissfulness in everyday survival and communal work. The project explores ruin as an exosmotic vessel of the presence of man which contains morphological and anthropological memories. By unleashing the materialistic presence of the ruined fort at the edge of Brean Down, a new layer of experience is added to the pilgrimatic pursuit of earthly-spirituality. The impartation of modern meaning to the fort’s structure also challenges the modern architectural trend of constantly creating ‘new-new’ in contrast to the revelation of ‘new-old’. ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvellous in our eyes.’
ST U DIO 4 .9
| B S c A rc h ite c t ure
- Psalms 118:22
From top: Building isometric: new with old, interior view of chapel, view of approach
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