2019-2020 Xinyi Chen Pella Prize Finalist
Thesis: Meandering in the city of God Volume III: City and Monastery
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Volume I
Sources and Inspirations Volume II
Analogous City Volume III
Thesis : Meandering In the City of God
City and Monastery Table of Contents Prelude Monastic Typology versus Urban Typology Monks’ Schedule versus City Dwellers’ Schedule The Convent of La Tourette Abstract Drawings Linking the Monastery and the City The Site in New York City Site Analysis Model Studies of Light, Space, Order Sacred Spaces of Light Mapping the Plan Appendices
Volume IV
Meandering in the city of God
02|03 04|05 06|07 08|09 10|11 12|13 14|15 16|17 18|19 20|21 22|29 30|31
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The Benedictine monastery, an autonomous compound comprising quarters for living, working, and praying, is an ideal program to fulfill the question of how a work of architecture may act like a city, including the formation of meandering perspectival experiences. Both entities, monastery and city, are complexes containing diversified spaces that are carefully planned, structured, and ordered to fulfill the needs of their community. Inhabitants, city dwellers and monks, reinforce the order by ambulatory movement: strolling, processing, promenading, walking, pausing. This third volume of the thesis documentation focuses on the research and design iterations of a 21st century monastery in realizing this law of meandering ., in which he identifies the essential structure, “ The path, together with its destination, the multiple views succeeding one another, each contributing to the disclosure of unity within topographical variation.�(Leatherbarrow, p292). By juxtaposing plans and perspectives, thereby juxtaposing the planned structured arrangement of architecture with the visual perception of its experience, the model tries to achieve a unified totality acting as a City, of God.
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Monastic Typology versus Urban Typology Plan of St. Gall An Ideal Plan for Medieval Monastery
InďŹ rmary
Cemetery
Scriptorium/Library
Barn and Granary (storehouse) Dormitory/Cell Chapter House (Later developed) Artisans workshops Cloister
School
Refectory
Church
Guest house House for poor(Pilgrims)
Tower I
Tower II Gatehouse
Monastic Typology versus Urban Typology Urban Typology Typologies seen in the 21st century metropolis
Hospital : A place providing patient treatments Cemetry : A place to bury the remains of the dead Library : A place to read, study and gather Museum : A place to preserve and exhibit the collection of artifacts(goods) House / Apartments : A place for habitation Town hall / Authoritative Departments: A place providing organizational assembly School : A place to get educated Workshop/Offices : A place to produce and create things Restaurant : A place to eat Mall : A place providing a promenade Church : A place for worship
Hotel : A place to provide vistors with accomodation Post office : A place to receive and send out communications Skyscraper : A place symbolizes vertical strength Checkpoint/port : A place marks the entrance and exit of the city
Monastery Typology Monk’s daily circulation Visitor’s Circulation
The Benedictine monastery has been seen as a utopia providing a self-sufficient system for monks to live, pray and work under the Rule of St. Benedict. The plan of St. Gall is an ideal plan to demonstrate this medieval Carolingian order. The typical monastic programs, such as cells, refectory, tower can be compared with the urban typologies of living, entertaining, working, etc. Like the circulations of St.Gall reserved for different orders, the routes between spaces are shared by a diversity group of people are creating the urban typography.
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Cell 7:15 a.m. 7:15 a.m. 7:30 a.m. 7:45 a.m. 8:00 a.m. 8:15 a.m. 8:30 a.m. 8:45 a.m.
6:00 A.M. 8:00 A.M. 10:00 A.M. 12:00 P.M. Monk’s prayer time
2:00 P.M. 4:00 P.M.
A monk’s schedule on weekday
6:00 P.M. City’s dweller’s interim
8:00 P.M. 10:00 P.M.
11:00 p.m.
9:45 p.m.
9:15 p.m.
8:30 p.m.
8:00 p.m.
6:15 p.m. 6:30 p.m. 6:45 p.m. 7:00 p.m. 7:15 p.m.
5:45 p.m.
5:15 p.m.
3:30 p.m.
1:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m.
1:05 p.m.
12:00 A.M.
11:45 p.m.
Church
12:25 12:30 p.m. p.m.
Break
Vespers
Break
Work
Off to the city for work
Grocery
Go to bed
Go to bed
Wash up
Entertainment
Metro home
Supper Get off from work Recreation Dinner with friends Compile
Work
Lunch
Wake up Get Ready
Breakfast Metro to work Study
Breakfast
Meeting with clients
Day prayer
Lunch Break
Lectio Divina
Oratory
Eucharist
Refectory /Kitchen
11:15 a.m.
Workshop/ Classroom
Lectio Divina
Library
11:45 a.m.
Common House
Lauds
Monastery Typology
10:00 a.m.
6:00 a.m. 6:45 a.m.
Rise Vigils
Cloister
5:40 a.m.
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Monks’ Schedule versus City Dwellers’ Schedule
Urban Typology Apartment /House Metro Station Office Desk
Conference Room Cafe / Pantry
Restaurant / Bar
Library /Classroom
A city dweller’s schedule on weekday
Grocery Store Time
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Monks’ Schedule versus City Dwellers’ Schedule
Praying in the Cell
Carpentering in the Workshop
Processing before Eucharist
Praying before Lunch
Gathering with the Community
Vespering in the Cloister
Getting Ready at Apartment
Working at the Office
Meeting with Co-workers
Eating Fast Food for Lunch
Cheering at Music Festival
Studying at the Public Library
The similarities between a monastery and a city can be found in relating a monk’s restricted schedule for prayer and a typical city dweller’s daily routine. According to the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks awake around five a.m. followed by the first service of Vigils to break the darkness. After the breakfast, the second service of Lauds begins for the rising sun at seven a.m.. Later, the monks return to their cells for “Lectio Divina” to further practice scripture. At nine a.m., they gather for the service of Terce and Mass. Then, it is the working and studying time until the dinner at one p.m.. After the fifth service and afternoon work, the monks spend time on Vespers which is an evening sacrifice of praise. At supper time, they sing and pray together again. At eight p.m., the monks conclude the day with the final service of Compline. Also, driven by rules of the society, city dwellers follow a daily regimen. Most of the city’s inhabitants awake at a fixed hour between six to eight a.m.. After getting readied for the day, sometimes they rush for work without having a breakfast. Daily work activities for urban inhabitants varies, but it is often regulated and recurring in support of their particular job. After work, they close the day with a meal with family or friends, or with a commute to their place of rest.
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The Convent of La Tourette
Entrance for visitors
Entrance at middle oor
Visitors Holding
Living at 2nd Floor Praying
Praying
Skylight
Skylight Courtyard
Courtyard
Praying Dinning Balcony
Circulation
Spatial Organization
Light and Courtyard
340
810
625
1835
915(W)*1950(L) *460(H)
1525
1200*790*750(H)
1830
Rhythmical Movements Revealed on the Facade
Modular Order
1130*595
1835
1830
4040
815
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The Convent of La Tourette
The Birds-eye View Revealing the Secluded Setting
The Customized Cell
The Promenade of Light and Shadow
Light and Order within the Church
As a masterpiece of Modernism, Le Corbusier’s Convent of La Tourette designs a divine space by thinking about the human scale. The architecture, with its rudimentary, plain concrete, modular aggregation of individual monk cells, paths of promenade guided by primary geometric volumes articulated by light and shadow, underpin the Dominican order’s life as a community and within the community. In silence, the brothers promenade around the central cloister, proceeding to their regular masses, prayer, and meals within an urban-like sanctuary devoted to God as whole group as well as the individual.
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Abstract Drawings Linking the Monastery and the City
Architecture of Silence: David Heald’s Photographs of Cistercian Abbeys in France
Architecture of Truth: Lucien Hervé’s Photograph of Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronet
Abstract Drawings Linking the Monastery and the City
Compositions
Repetitions
Sequence
Apertures
Field
Vista
The collection of abstract drawings, inspired by a series of photographs portraying the light and silence within the Cistercian abbeys, aims to represent the order and unity both in the monastery and city. With the use of graphite and yellow pencil, the drawings accentuate the contrast of geometrical composition within a serene field. Instead of precise depictions, the representations recalling the two entities are impulsive in the manner of ambiguity, which might foster some further design ideas.
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The Site in New York City
New York City’s Grid
New York City’s Parks
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The Site in New York City
Central Park
Time Square
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Tra i
ns
Four Freedoms State Park
Penn Station East 34th Street
SITE
Cemetry
The Site in New York City
New York City is developed under a grid with streets running east-west and avenues north-south. Within this prescribed ordering system, constructions are often optimized and regularized through the plan, and space is maximized through verticality. Based on comparable characteristics, several blocks of buildings comprise a district to serve the community around. Parks punctuate these communities and unify neighborhoods--each is distinctive: the scalar generosity and multiplicity of Central Park attracts diverse classes of the whole city’s population, the intimacy of private parks, such as Gramercy park serves unique locale communities, and Bryant Park is activated midday with people in business suits eating lunch. By situating the monastery project adjacent the River and in open land of Brooklyn, the thesis aim to engage and test the elements of grid and park seen in NYC, while also responding to unique elements of the existing urban order.
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Site Analysis
Zoning
Transportation Stations
Site Analysis
Traffic Routes From N.
Street Typology The series of site analysis reveals the basics of site within the context through the aspects of zoning and transportations. The site is an open land with approximately 7 acres near the coastline of Brooklyn adjacent to the East River. It dominates the whole block as a part of urban structures. Surrounded by mix-use of commercial and residential buildings with low profiles, the site is a pleasant land for visitors with less buzzing and noise compared to Manhattan on the other side of the river. People traversing Brooklyn and Manhattan through the site could either take the ferry across the river or take the bus after the metro. By exemplifying the site comprehensively, the project aims to integrate with the urban context.
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Model Studies of Light, Space, Order
Peek into the Church Through the Door
Reflective Light at the Altar
Light Aperture at the Gathering Seatings
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Model Studies of Light, Space, Order
Diffused Space at the Gathering Space
Altar, Gathering Space, Side rooms
Repetitive Side Rooms Facing Light Slits
The model studies light and order as essential attributes in the design of the church. There are three primary components and each with individual spatial conditions: the entrance, the congregational seating, and the altar. By designing the model with different apertures and testing them under distinctive lights, the designs, such as the slit with the directionality at the entrance, the ample and diffused light at seating, and the reflective light at the altar, tries to amplify the tranquility and divinity of the sacred architecture. The model also constructs by thinking of the spatial order. The repetitive boxes at the back imitating the side-rooms for worships studies the relationship between parts to whole. By investigating the fundamental design values, the architecture tries to create an experiential journey for the monks as well as neighborhood congregants.
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Sacred Spaces of Light
The Entrance at the Church
The Seating at the Church
The Altar at the Church
Central Cloister and Three Movements
The Sunday School
The Library
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Sacred Spaces of Light
Primitive Life I
The Window Slights of the Cell
Primitive Life II
Primitive Life III
Light and Compositions of the Cell
Light and Compositions of the Cell
The religious nature of a monastery requires diversified sacred spaces to nurture the various spiritual practices, which one expects to occur for both the individual, as in the monks’ cells, as well for communal gatherings, as in chapels or refectories. Captured through the sketches and charcoal drawings, the design aims to create and indicate sacred spaces through composing specialized moments with light thereby indicating divinity through atmospheric differentiation.
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Living
EAGLE STREET
Consuming Working / Learning
VISITORS FROM THE CITY
Mapping the Plan
Symbol
NEIGHBORHOOD
M O N A S T E RY
Divine
12’ * 12’ Grid 360’*360’ In Total
The concept diagram
Mapping the Plan
The design starts by systematically using a 12 by 12 foot grid as the underlying order for the overall layout. And each program contains a courtyard which engages with the nature. Within the perimeter boundary walls, measuring 360 feet at each side, the complex is carefully arranged around a central cloister (or courtyard) that engages the programs, contexts, and people living within or passing through the complex. The dormitory and church dominate the west and south sides of the monastery, respectively, while the other smaller scale programs interweave and link smaller courtyards across the site. By studying the juxtapositions between private and public, as well as repeating and singular architectural elements, with examining the relationship between parts to whole, the monastery aims for a unified totality acting like a city, as well as a part of existing urban contexts.
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Mapping the Plan
Dec. 04, 2019 Investigating the compositions of the overall layout with circulated path navigating between each part.
Mapping the Plan
Jan. 24, 2020 Integration of the design of the section with the plan and exploring the spatial experience through light and silence.
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Mapping the Plan
Feb. 12, 2020 Development of each space and questioning the relationship between parts and whole, private and public, seeing and being seen.
Mapping the Plan
Mar. 05, 2020 Adjustment of the design to the surroundings with explorations of boundary conditions, entrance positions, and the circulation within and outside the complex’ perimeter.
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Mapping the Plan
Mar. 15, 2020 Studies here juxtapose the circulation of three meandering groups: the monks, the ferry riders, and the neighborhood congregants, which is best seen in the design of the cloister, the church, and the dormitory.
Mapping the Plan
Mar. 27, 2020 Rearrangement of the circulation paths within the cloister and the church, with an aim to reveal both a divine order and a city order, as well as environmental forces, and as framed by the architecture.
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Image References
P6: Reichenau, Plan of Saint Gall. Simplified view showing different structures, 820– 830, Drawing. Wikipedia. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ e6/Plan.abbaye.Saint.Gall.png. Accessed 17 April, 2020. P9: Unknown. Means of sanctification. Photograph. https://pebesen.wordpress. com/tag/fe-catolica/. Accessed 10 December, 2019. Max Whittaker/Prime for the Wall Street Journal, A monk’s Life. Photograph. https://graphics.wsj.com/glider/benopmonk-1eacd494-b729-466e-a6ad519c5244b42c. Accessed 10 December, 2019. Mars, Bruce /Pexels, How to Increase Your Brain Power and Improve the Quality of Outputs You Produce,Photograph. https://medium.com/the-mission/how-toincrease-your-brain-power-and-improve-the-quality-of-outputs-you-produce9d4171ad2899. Accessed 10 December, 2019. Unknown. 3 Reasons Why You Feel Tired After Eating foodline, Photograph. https://medium.com/@maxaweber/6-nutritious-macro-friendly-fast-foodmeals-that-wont-derail-your-diet-4c905f8050a9 Bell, Gordon / Shutterstock. 21 Free Things To Do in New York City, Photograph. https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/new-york-city/articles/21-free-things-to-do-in-new-york-city/.Accessed 10 December, 2019. Unknown. Why I Miss Going To Music Concerts, Photograph. https://medium. com/@outsidethewell/3-reasons-why-i-miss-going-to-concerts-39828b47d099. Accessed 10 December, 2019. Unknown, Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/top-view-photo-of-peoplenear-wooden-table-3183150/. Accessed 10 December, 2019. Unknown. https://luxuryrentalsnewyork.com/new-york-no-fee-luxury-rentals/. Accessed 10 December, 2019. P11: Unknown, Notes on the Convent de la Tourette by Le Corbusier, 1957. Photograph. http://www.fadu.edu.uy/viaje2015/columnas/notas-sobre-el-conventode-la-tourette-de-le-corbusier-1957/. Accessed 20 June, 2020. Unknown, Two monks at the Convent de la Tourette, by Le Corbusier, 1953-1960. Photograph. https://www.descubrirelarte.es/2015/08/28/le-corbusier-el-genio-de-la-vida-contemporanea.html. Accessed 20 June, 2020. Flickr user electricputty, Sainte Marie de La Tourette / Le Corbusier. Photograph.
Image References
https://archeyes.com/sainte-marie-de-la-tourette-le-corbusier/. Accessed 20 June, 2020. Le Corbusier Archives, Sainte Marie de La Tourette / Le Corbusier. Photograph. https://archeyes.com/sainte-marie-de-la-tourette-le-corbusier/. Accessed 20 June, 2020. P12: Heald, David. Entrance to the South Aisle, Le Thoronet, 1986. Photograph. KMR Arts. https://www.kmrarts.com/new-page-3. Accessed 20 June, 2020. Heald, David. Capitals of the Ambulatory, Pontigny, 1990. Photograph. KMR Arts. https://www.kmrarts.com/new-page-3. Accessed 20 June, 2020. Heald, David. Nave Looking West, Longpoint, 1990. Photograph. KMR Arts. https:// www.kmrarts.com/new-page-3. Accessed 20 June, 2020. Heald, David. Crossing, North Transept and Night Stairs, Silvacane, 1986. Photograph. KMR Arts. https://www.kmrarts.com/new-page-3. Accessed 20 June, 2020. HervĂŠ, Lucien. Architecture of Truth: The Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronnet in Provence, 2001. By Lucien Herve, Francois Cali. Phaidon Press Limited, 2001. Print.
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