Urban Monastery
Shifting from a literal Utopian scheme as laid out by St. Augustine,
Urban Monastary reframes the traditional monastery, specifically
Certosa Di Pavia, within the context of a contemporary urban site.
The historic notion of the wall as a boundary is inverted into a
void, programatically dividing, joining, and operating as a threshold
between three opposites: living and worship, silence and daily
contact, and spiritual and secular.
The unique site condition redefines the notion of the wall as one
which links spaces both vertically and horizontally, departing
from the otherwise traditional hierarchy of horizontal spaces and
creating a convergence point for monks and visitors within
the cloister. The voided wall is contextualized as an armature
between the lake and street, an extension of the urban block, and
addresses the park on the West-side with a series of visual manipulations.
The ghost of its predecessor is retained as one moves throughout
the wall corridor, engaging in a constant dialogue between the
visitor and monk, expansion and compression. Its dialogue is
furthered with the balance between lightness and transparency
through the intricate steel details as well as heaviness and opacity
with the massive concrete walls.
Its unique predicament from its “un-ideal” urban site suggests the
role of an Urban Monastery as not one which aims for complete
seclusion but one which equally engages with the city as a refuge
for all people. Gathering people together for a higher purpose,
Urban Monastery aims to be the quintessential civic building. It is
an intellectual center, a refuge for both monks and city dwellers, giving
the immaterial a secure home on earth.
