An urban monastery

Abstract

It was my objective to develop a design-method with which I could define and capture the spirit of an urban monastery. The spirit of this monastery was to dictate the form, structure, volume, materials and details. Each part of the project, inside and outside, were to have the spirit of an urban monastery.

lt was my hypothesis that the best way to capture the spirit of a project was to begin with conceptual models. These models were based on abstractions of how I felt about the monastery and its parts. Words such as hard, soft, dark, light, loud, quiet, open, closed, inviting and defensive were used to define the models. These models would grow and change, adapting to new situations, always gaining in detail until I would finally end up with a final design.