Thesis _ IV

2019-2020 Xinyi Chen Pella Prize Finalist

Volume IV: The 21st Century Monastery In NYC

Thesis: Meandering in the city of God

2

Volume I

Sources and Inspirations Prelude Theatrical Urban Compositions Flâneur and Modernity Utopia and Dis-utopia Postmodernism Urban Theory The Art of Building Cities Architectural Montage Appendices

04|05 06|07 08|09 10|11 12|13 14|15 16|17 18|19

Analogous City Prelude Street Typologies and Collective Memories City Collages of NYC and Rome Movements Urban Conditions and Possibilities The Synthesis of Studying a City An Ever-changing Field Words and Terms Readings and Thoughts Notes and Sketches

04|05 06|07 08|09 10|11 12|13 14|15 16|17 18|19 20|21 22|23

Volume III

City and Monastery 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

04|05 06|07 08|09 10|11 12|13 14|15 16|17 18|19 20|21 22|29 30|31

doG fo ytiC eht nI gnirednaeM : sisehT

Volume II

IV : IV

Volume IV

Thesis : Meandering In the City of God

The 21st Century Monastery In NYC

Table of Contents Prelude Monks and City Dwellers The Site in New York City Mapping the Plan Meandering the Plan Bounding Walls of the City of God Plan Interpretations The Cell - Meandering as One The Church - Meandering as the Dialogue The Cloister - Meandering In and Through Montages Depicting the Experience of Meandering

02|03 04|05 06|07 08|09 10|11 12|13 14|15 16|21 22|27 28|33 34|39 40|41

3

4

Flâneur “A person who walks the city in order to experience it” (Baudelaire,1863)

Raumkunst (Space - Art)

I. The rela�onship between buildings, monuments, and public squares II. Open centers of public places III. The enclosed character of the public square IV. The form and expanse of public squares V. The irregularity of ancient public squares VI. Groups of public squares VII. Arrangement of public squares in northern Europe VIII. The artless and prosaic character of modern city planning IX. Modern systems X. Modern limita�ons on art in city planning XI. Improved modern systems XII. Ar�s�c principles in city planning - An illustra�on XIII. Conclusion

Law Of Meandering

Flâneur

Promenade Architecture

“The crowd is his element, as the air is that of birds and water of fishes. His passion and his profession are to become one flesh with the crowd. For the perfect flâneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy to set up house in the heart of the mul�tude, amid the ebb and flow of movement, in the midst of the fugi�ve and the infinite. To be away from home and yet to feel oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to remain hidden from the world—impar�al natures which the tongue can but clumsily define.”

“Architecture is experienced as one roams about in it and walks through it….so true is this that architectural works can be divided into dead and living ones depending on whether the law of ‘roaming through’ has not been observed or whether on the contrary it has been brilliantly obeyed. .”

(City Stroller)

(Architectural Montage)

— Le Corbusier

— Charles Baudelaire, "The Painter of Modern Life", (New York: Da Capo Press, 1964). Orig. published in Le Figaro, in 1863.

Plan of St. Gall

Unity Temple

(Chapter XI)

(Ideal Plan For Monastery)

(Sequen�al Movements)

“....From that vintage, the face of the earth presented the most basic struggle : straight versus curved, light versus dark, and lawful versus lawless. The law of meander was so basic that it ruled all manner of terrestrial phenomena : environmental forces, gardens, ci�es, and buildings. Origina�ng in natural metamorphosis, the meander was thus taken to be fateful, for the movements of the natural world consign to human affairs both their orienta�on and their end.”

“The Plan was first and foremost the materializa�on of a utopia vision of an efficient, liturgically sound, produc�ve, and self-perpetua�ng community of individuals. It was, according to the authors, a fully transferable building plan, intended to not only standardize monas�c architecture and community planning but to also par�cipate in the general reform of the Benedic�ne Rule encouraged by Charlemagne.

Horn and Born maintain that the Plan provides a remarkable illustra�on of the drive toward a linguis�c, religious, and poli�cal unity sought in the Carolingian-age. They summarize the ar�fact by sta�ng that it gathers, as in a lens, an image of the whole of Carolingian life.”

“...Back there was the long, straight, mindful, heedless line... and there was the wavering, searching, heedful line embroidering the straight one like some free, engaging vine as it ran back and forth across it.”

— David Leatherbarrow, Chapter XI: “ The Law of Meander”, Architectural Oriented Otherwise", (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009).

— “Guide to the The Plan of St. Gall : produc�on materials”.

— Frank Llyod Wright, “Preclude”, Autobiography (New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943).

IV : IV

The 21st Century Monastery In NYC

God’s city, a Benedictine monastery, unfolds itself through the map, where a hierarchy of lines, arrows, signs, and shapes orchestrate dynamic yet structured sequences of spatial experiences. For the monks, the city of God is ordered by the restrictive routine of prayer and silence as detailed in the Rule of St. Benedict, but in this thesis, also by an idea of urban life. This city’s map facilitates superimposed and autonomous experiences for both the devout community of monks and the city dweller. Spatial sequences and picturesque experiences, whether heedless or heedful, straight or wavering, processing or strolling, are underpinned by conscious principles of order tuned to the role of the ambulant observer. Meandering, in any city, reveals the city’s spirit and essence in a perspectival view; one is pulled through space by elements at all scales and accompanied by sounds, smells, touch, and perceptions. The monastery’s plan frames views for both the inhabitant and the visitor.

By situating the Benedictine monastery both as an urban environment and in an urban environment, the project aims to order and orchestrate the movement of three moving spectators : the monks on their hourly processions, the neighborhood congregants visiting each Sunday for mass, and the ferry-riding public traversing Manhattan and Brooklyn. `

5

6

Plan of St. Gall - An ideal plan for medieval monastery Infirmary

Urban Typology - Typology seen in the 21st century metropolitan Hospital : A place providing patient treatments Cemetery : A place to bury the remains of the dead

Cemetery

Library : A place to read, study and gather Museum : A place to preserve and exhibit the collection of artifacts(goods) Scriptorium/Library

Dormitory/Cell

Barn and Granary (storehouse)

Chapter House (Later developed)

Town hall / Authoritative Departments: A place providing organizational assembly School : A place to get educated Artisans workshops

Cloister Refectory

School

House / Apartments : A place for habitation

Workshop/Offices : A place to produce and create things Restaurant : A place to eat Mall : A place providing a promenade

Church

Church : A place for worship Hotel : A place to provide visitors with accommodation

Guest house House for poor(Pilgrims)

Post office : A place to receive and send out communications Skyscraper : A place symbolizes vertical strength

Tower I

Tower II

Gatehouse

Checkpoint/port : A place marks the entrance and exit of the city Monastery Typology Monk’s daily circulation Visitor’s Circulation

Monastic Typology versus Urban Typology

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 monasatic 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.

IV : IV

6:00 A.M.

8:00 A.M.

10:00 A.M.

Supper Get off from work

Go to bed

Wash up

Entertainment

Apartment /House Metro Station

Grocery

Conference Room Cafe / Pantry

Go to bed

Lectio Divina

Compile

Break

Vespers

12:00 P.M.

Urban Typology

Office Desk

Recreation Dinner with friends

Work

Restaurant / Bar Library /Classroom

2:00 P.M.

4:00 P.M.

6:00 P.M.

8:00 P.M.

10:00 P.M.

11:45 p.m.

11:00 p.m.

9:45 p.m.

9:15 p.m.

8:30 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

7:15 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

6:45 p.m.

6:30 p.m.

5:15 p.m.

3:30 p.m.

1:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m.

Grocery Store 6:15 p.m.

Lunch Day prayer 1:05 p.m.

12:25 p.m.

12:30 p.m.

11:15 a.m.

11:45 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

8:45 a.m.

8:15 a.m.

8:00 a.m.

8:30 a.m.

7:30 a.m.

7:45 a.m.

7:15 a.m. 7:15 a.m.

Vigils 6:45 a.m.

Rise

6:00 a.m.

Cell

5:40 a.m.

Cloister

5:45 p.m.

Church

Lunch Break

Break

Lauds

Common House

Eucharist

Oratory

Meeting with clients

Lectio Divina

Refectory /Kitchen

Breakfast

Workshop/ Classroom

Work

Library

Breakfast Metro to work Study

Wake up Get Ready

Monastery Typology

Metro home

Off to the city for work

Monks and City Dwellers

12:00 A.M.

Time

Monk’s prayer time

A monk’s schedule on weekday

City’s dweller’s interim

A city dweller’s schedule on weekday

Monks’ Schedule versus City Dwellers’ Schedule

The similarities between a monastery and a city can be also revealed through monastic restrict schedules and city dwellers’ daily routines. In the light and silence, monks are experiencing the flow of time by following a regular daily schedule, in which they find a release from the chaotic material world. Within crowds of people and forests of buildings, city dwellers’ activities are driven under rules of a society. In the metropolitan, they sense the time by moving from one place to another.

7

8

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

The site is an open lot with approximately 7 acres adjacent to the East River in Brooklyn, and it is part of the existing grid urban structure. Surrounded by mix-use of commercial and residential buildings with low profiles, the site is a pleasant scale for pedestrians; there is less activity and reduced noise compared to Manhattan on the opposing side of the river. People traverse between Brooklyn and Manhattan through the site, either taking a ferry to cross the river or hoping a bus to connect with the subway. By embracing the exigencies of the site comprehensively, the project aims to integrate with the urban context.

The Site in New York City

Bird’s-eye View of the Site

By situating the Benedictine monastery both as an urban environment and in an urban environment, the project aims to order and orchestrate the movement of three moving spectators : the monks on their hourly processions, the neighborhood congregants visiting each Sunday for mass, and the ferry-riding public traversing Manhattan and Brooklyn.

IV : IV

9

10

Dec. 04, 2019

Feb. 12, 2020

Mar. 15, 2020

IV : IV

Jan. 24, 2020

Mar. 05, 2020

Mar. 27, 2020

11

12

Meandering 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.

Through pausing, walking, processing, gathering, etc., the monks spend their days of prayers and silence within the walls of their sanctuary around the central cloister.

Commuters to and from Manhattan or occasional visitors cross the river and engage the monastery as a threshold. These visitors slip into the cloister below-grade, circle its boundary, entering or leaving the complex through the main Brooklyn gate or the East River portal. The monastery also welcomes its neighbors in Brooklyn every Sunday for mass. The worshipers share the space of the church with the monks, yet they while have a discrete path towards their own seating area. A screen of rotating doors separates the two groups and is another form of play with the idea of visual interaction through seeing and being seen. The three user groups and their discrete rationale behind their movement uniquely informed the design of the cloister and church. The differently orchestrated architectural sequences and spaces engage the law of meander, with its requisite elements of path, destination, successive views, and topographical variation, as a basic idea to call forth the cityness of the monastery.

The monastery’s program contains: • A cloister supporting the daily, meditative processions of the monks, grasped of views for the neighborhood worshippers, and moments of pausing for visitors to and from Manhattan • Ninety-six cells for monks, lay brothers, and visitors • A church serving the monks as well as the neighborhood • A chapter-house for meetings of the monastic community • A refectory for contemplative dining at lunch and dinner • A library with classroom and workshops • A Sunday school for the neighborhood •A reception house to receive visitors •A gateway entrance and path welcoming and guiding the neighbors for Sunday mass

IV : IV

13

14

Workshops

Sunday School

Library

Refectory

Reception Dormitory

North Elevation The visitors arriving by ferry from Manhattan approach the monastery at the northern corner of the site and the initial view presents a composition of spaces at different scales and depths. In contrast with solid wall planes, the voids between the repeated columns and framing grids form the boundary and soften the edge condition so as to offer a welcoming gesture to the visitors.

Church

Bus Stop

Sunday School

Entrance

Library

East Elevation The eastern boundary adjacent to the neighborhood is the main entry facade as it receives most of the population arriving at the site. This elevation wall contains a bus stop adjacent to the church entrance, as well as a monastery entrance portal facing the road. The bounding wall is also the perimeter walls of the Sunday school and church. Combining solid walls, column screens, and translucent glass, this facade creates a dialogue between private and public.

Workshops

IV : IV

Bounding Walls of the City of God

Dormitory

Dormitory

Sunday School

Church

South Elevation The south elevation clads the monks’ dormitory and the church. This facade is not often seen. Order is established through regular window slits and the modulated housing units comprising the dormitory.

Reception

Sunday School

Dormitory

Church

West Elevation The western boundary, largely dominated by the dormitory, faces the east river. The housing volumes are shielded with a translucent glass screen-wall, which reflects the natural environment and frames Manhattan across the river.

15

16

Plan: Site Planning

The visitors traversing Manhattan and Brooklyn arrive at the site by ferry. They experience the monastery by crossing through the portal in the boundary wall, ambulate toward and around the central cloister, then exit to Brooklyn’s Eagle Street through the main portal. This portal also receives the neighborhood congregants for Sunday mass.

Plan: Organization

The plan is established with the grid of 12 feet by 12 feet, which is a divine number that can also be easily divided. With 360 feet at each side, different programs are carefully arranged to form and volumetric boundary around the cloister--a circular void with a diameter of 60 feet.

IV : IV

17

18

Plan: Courtyards, Gardens

Public Courtyard Shared by the public

Semi-Public Courtyard Shared visually by the public

Private Courtyard

Shared only by the monks

Water

Central Courtyard

Collec�ve Rain water

The types of courtyard provides three typologies of ambulatory spectators with diverse spatial conditions. The courtyards of the residential sector are accessible only to the monks and create a place for reflective meditation within the cells. At the boundary, some courtyards are semi-public and offer an outdoor room for contemplative and quiet activities for the neighborhood, and finally one courtyard is open to the public and provides a gathering space for the community after Sunday mass.

IV : IV

Plan: Paths

Workshops Recep�on

Library

Refectory Cell

Cell

Cell

Major Minor Procession

Workshops

Monk Circula�on Cell

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

TO

EL LEV ST.

Sunday School

Cell

Cell Cell

Chapter House

RIS EU P

Cell

Cell

Bus Stop

Cell

Sacristy

Side-room

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Altar

Neighborhood Sea�ngs

Monks Sea�ngs Worship Worship Cell Cell

Worship Worship Cell Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Three types of meandering spectators within the monastery are provided with discrete paths, yet maintain visual connection with each other. Sequenced movement around the central cloister allows the ferry-riders to have a peek into the monastery without actually entering it. This interaction between seeing and being seen is also revealed in the design of the church. A screen of pivoting doors creates two discrete seating areas, while still allowing the two populations, congregants and monks, to share one space through sound and air.

B.R.

Cell

Monks Sea�ng

Side-room

Cell

Balneary (room for bathing)

Cell

-1

Balneary (room for bathing)

Cell

B TO

Major

Cell

EAGLE STREET

Neighborhood Circula�on

RD WA WN DO

Major Minor

Balneary (room for bathing)

Visitors Circula�on

19

20

Plan: Roof

Light is considered as an essential component in designing a sacred space and its importance is revealed in the roof plan diagram. At each cell, light penetrates into the staircase through the skylight. In the church, diverse light conditions are provided by admitting light from above. One can see diffused light in the congregants’ seating area, as opposed to reflective light in the monks seating and finally, direct light illuminates the altar.

Plan: Ground

The below-grade ground plan reveals the central cloister and its fountain, as well as the ambulatory route of the ferry-riders. These visitors, transversing Manhattan and Brooklyn, are guided by the architecture’s perspectival views to descend and circulate around the cloister before stepping up to exist toward the main street.

IV : IV

21

22

IV : IV

The Cell Meandering as One

The Church Meandering as the Dialogue

The Cloister Meandering Within and Through

23

24

A’

24’

A

Plan of Cells

9’

9’

Section A’ A

IV : IV

The Cell - Meandering as One

Diagram Indicating the Location of the Dormitory

Primitive Life I

Primitive Life II

Primitive Life III

The Window Slits of the Cell

Light and Compositions of the Cell

Light and Compositions of the Cell

The dormitory housing-cells are located on the western side of the monastery facing the East River and the farthest away from the public street. Each cell is identical a loft space of twenty-one feet long by twelve feet wide by eighteen feet tall; there are two layers of cells on each lot. Every four cells share a spiral staircase leading towards a small communal courtyard. Within the sacred space constructed with limited materials, including light, concrete, and water, each monk is able to practice their relationship with God as an individual within the larger commune.

25

26

Axonometric Drawing Showing the Arrangement of the Dormitory

By thinking about the scales of urban streets, the circulation of the dormitory aims to achieve a hierarchical system that facilitates differentiated relationship between private and public, the individual and the collective--similar to a city.

The Cell - Meandering as One

The Shared Courtyards for Monks with Path Navigating through

The Tranquil Cell Created through Light and Boundary

IV : IV

27

28

IV : IV

The Cell Meandering as One

The Church Meandering as the Dialogue

The Cloister Meandering Within and Through

29

30

Plan of the Church

Perspective Section

IV : IV

The Church - Meandering as the Dialogue

Peek into the Church through the Door

Reflective Light at the Altar

Light Aperture at the Gathering Seatings

Diffused Space at the Gathering Space

Altar, Gathering space, Side Rooms

Repetitive Side-rooms Facing Light Slits

The Entrance at the Church

The Seating Gatherings at the Church

The Altar at the Church

The church dominates the south side of the monastery and accommodates each monks’s daily celebration of mass, plus the neighborhood congregants for each Sunday mass. Light and order is an essential component in constructing and differentiating the activity within. The church follows tradition and is sited along an east and west orientation. Inside, the spatial experience includes diffused light for the pews, reflective light from the wall, an illuminated column at the altar, and directional light in the hallway.

31

32

A : The Church Hallway Constructed with Light and Repetition

B: The Altar, Seating and Light

C. Seating for the Neighborhood Penetrated with Skylights

IV : IV

The Church - Meandering as the Dialogue

C

B

A

Diagram Indicating the Interactions between the two within the Church

Visitors enter the monastery through the eastern entrance, whether arriving by foot or from the bus stop. Ideally, before stepping into the church, worshipers would skirt the cloister and peek into the central cloister without actually entering it. There is a discrete path for the visitors around the perimeter of the church, leading towards their dedicated seating area. The monks arrive from the opposite direction, circumambulate the cloister and then step into the space. The two groups are separated with a scree wall consisted of rotating doors, which further plays the visual inter-action of seeing and being seen. The design of the church looks for a spiritual sanctuary for all incomers, while provides different experiences for groups of people.

33

34

IV : IV

The Cell Meandering as One

The Church Meandering as the Dialogue

The Cloister Meandering Within and Through

35

36

The Cloister - Meandering Within and Through

The perspective section, cut through from north to south, depicts the three spectators’ movements and arrangement within the complex. The cloister path leads visitors or commuters traveling from or to Manhattan. They descend below grade, ambulate around the central cloister, and then leave the monastery through one of two opposing gateways. There are ancillary spaces for reflective pauses or chance meetings, thus the orchestrated meandering path accommodates one rushing for an outside destination or strolling within the monastery’s walls. The space on the left of the section reveals the gathering space in the church reserved for the neighborhood congregants. On the right of the drawing is the refectory, where monks gather for lunch and dinner. While the monastery accommodates a range of visiting spectators, the interwoven arrangements between each space within the complex anchors the ideal city for monks to live, prayer, and particularly engage in contemplative meandering.

IV : IV

37

38

A. The Path for Visitors Leading towards the Below-grade Cloister

B. The Cloister with Fountain and the Exit to the Main Street

C. The Path Rising up to the Cloister at Street Level

D. The Workshops Connecting to the Library at the walled corner

E. The Path for Visitors Providing Glimpses into the Cloister

F. The Path for Monks' Procession Leading towards the Church

IV : IV

The Cloister - Meandering Within and Through

A C D

F E B

Diagram Indicating the Three Interweaving Movements

Constructed with architectural elements and natural features, the circular cloister engages two levels and frames the intertwining yet separate movement of three observers ambulating within and through the monastery. Each group of spectators has a discrete, scenographically planned path toward a destination, yet one’s meandering path does not intervene directly with the meandering route of other occupants. The intertwining juxtapositions of paths create interesting visual scenes unique to each spectator’s destination.

39

40

Workshops Recep�on

Cell

A

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell Cell

Cell

TO

EL LEV ST.

C D Sunday School

Cell

Cell Cell

Chapter House

EAGLE STREET

Cell

Cell

K Sacristy

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

I

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

F Worship Worship Cell Cell

Monks Sea�ngs

L

Worship Worship Cell Cell

B.R. Side-room

Neighborhood Sea�ngs

Altar

J

H

G

B

Monks Sea�ng

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Cell

Balneary (room for bathing)

Cell

Bus Stop

Balneary (room for bathing)

Cell

-1

Balneary (room for bathing)

Cell

Side-room

Cell Cell

B TO

Major

Cell

RD WA WN DO

Major Minor

RIS EU P

Cell

Visitors Circula�on Neighborhood Circula�on

Library

Refectory

Major Minor Procession

Workshops

Monk Circula�on

E

Diagram Indicating the Three Movements

A. The Path for Visitors Leading towards the Below-grade Cloister

B. The Cloister with Fountain and the Exit to the Main Street

C. The Path Rising up to the Cloister at Street Level

D. The Workshops Connecting to the Library at the walled corner

IV : IV

E. The Church Hallway Constructed with Light and Repetition

F. Seatings for the Neighborhood Penetrated with Skylights

G. The Path for Visitors Providing Glimpse into the Cloister

H. The Scared Pray Space behind the Wall at Sunday School

I. The Tranquil Cell Created through Light and Boundary

J. The Shared Courtyards for Monks with Path Navigating through

K. The Path for Monks' Procession Leading towards the Church

L. The Altar, Seating and Light

41