MONASTERY PROJECT PROCESS

The objective in this project was to create a monastery for a group of 20 monks. This was located in a mountainous region near the coast with a lot of tree cover. was to pick 5 household objects and use those objects to help form my 5 buildings of my monastery. This meant my original iterations were very different from each other, but it gave us an interesting start.

I chose to use an imaginary people that worshipped the sun and the moon, much like the indigenous people of South America. I wanted to revolve my monastery around a central garden that would also serve for a place of worship and communion.

Our 5 programs made up of a chapel, baths, dormitories, refectory, and a library.

I started my iterations to look much like the objects that I brought from home. They were mostly toys that belonged to my children or pets. I then started forming my program around a center garden that would replace my chapel, and I wanted it to be on the highest point in the lanscape. This meant embedding my monastery into the top of a mountain, which went along with my sun and moon concept.

My final effectively engaged the steep topography that I was given, while giving it a well choreographed circulation. created crescent shapes that revolved around a circle, creating a cloister that wrapped around the center garden.

It gave the center hierarchy by having to always return to it to visit another place in the monastery. was also able to affect the mountain as little as possible in the way my monastery was able to embed in it.