Buddhism as a religion and way of life is becoming increasingly sought after in western countries. As cultures clash, many people look to new methods for help with individual issues.



Meditation and flow is an aspect of Buddhism that can offer solace, guidance and therapy. Meditative tasks allow us to reach a state of flow. Whilst we concentrate on small and accomplish-able tasks, our mind sub-consciously reorganises into priorities and hierarchies.



New architectures attempts to re-assess the notion of construction and making, this can be linked into these meditative tasks by emphasizing the power of many small and discrete repetititve interventions.



I aim to design an architecture where the individual visitor will perform a series of meditative tasks that also act to serve the facility to be self sufficient. A combination of material and making techniques, inspired by my work within the Philip Beesley project, and the ritual aspect of  Buddhist themes, meditation and flow, should allow an accessible and efficient method to help solve the individuals issues.



Visitors to the facility include people seeking an alternative way of life for a variety of reasons. Kitchen gardens and allotments provide a meditative activity in seeding, planting, weeding, watering,  harvesting and preparing etc. The grown fruit and vegetables are used to feed the guests and residents to the facility, thus ensuring a self sufficiency. The delicate physical nature of plants are set against an architecture of strong materiality and solidity.



Some aspects of the architecture will be affected by the seasonal transition of the plant growth, and will have a temporary element.



Within the facility, a reflection of monastic daily chanting is present in a ‘gallery of whispers’. Guests use the gallery as another outlet to express their worries in a quiet and celestial environment that is not necessarily religious.

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After their stay at the facility, guests will have the opportunity to ‘set their issues alight’ in a room dedicated to burning the unused and inedible roots of the plants previously grown for food. The ritual aspect of burning will signify the release of anxieties, and the ashes created will be used as fertilizer and put back into the soil.