Stone, water, tree, wind and seasons are archetypes of the nature experience. An approaching walk that allows us to appreciate the tone of each. First stop: a greeting, an announcement.
The walk as a means of appropriating the land, of claiming one's body.
The path that leads to the marsh, and its symbolic crossing.
The wall that runs along it and descends into it.
And, in the water, the furtive flash of a supernatural light; And, on the water, the reflection of the undulating metal panels, Canadian style, of the sloping wall of the church; The welcome, the stone wall, the waters, the presence, the monk.
A spiritual geography of the abbey, place of a subtle transmutation of the matter, where the stone becomes sand, the sand becomes glass, and the glass articulates the light to allow the elevation of the spirit. The architecture of the monastery links earth to heaven, the soul to the spirit.
Paradise: the gardens of the simple, of meditation, of "environment"; it is the deep anchoring to the earth which allows the geothermal energy: the implantation of the discs of positioning of the individual wells comes to structure the garden of the monks; the courtyard, and the cloister also with the party to reverse the traditional position of the library and the scriptorium: together they become the source of the courtyard whose treatment reflects the sky, receives the photovoltaic energy and allows the opening of the cloister to the forest; the church, or the celebration of creation : the altar, the rock, the cross, the tree; the chapter house, or the exploration of tradition, a volume sculpted by fire and light; the cells, the apology of starting over, the fidelity to the call, woven into the crown of the trees that have been there for so long; the refectory, or the welcome of the harvest, of the other, a space of openness and invitation to peace.
Spaces that transcend time, the feast of hours that blossom from a universal, from the Annunciation to the Assumption, where light plays and marks time, where particular care is taken to allow various experiences of prayer: in community, alone, exulting, repenting, or giving thanks; the nave, the grotto, the garden, the wall or the cloister.
It is to the angelic walk that the presentation invites: a gaze that is both aerial, of overview, and penetrating, of incarnation: the passage from the monastic lectio divina to that of the architectural sectio divina.
(From competitor's text)
(Unofficial automated translation)
The jury appreciated the innovative design of the heart of the monastery, which includes the scriptorium, the library and the cloister. They emphasized the aesthetics of the project, the technical innovations proposed (notably the use of adobe) as well as the work done on the exterior.
The nobility and elegance of the building, as well as the harmony of the whole, were appreciated. The care taken with the siting and landscaping, as well as the sensitivity shown towards textures, were highlighted by the jury. However, the jury had reservations about the importance given to the exterior design and was surprised by the amount of work on the layout required to complete the project.
The poetic discourse and the complexity of the planning and materialization raised discussions within the jury. The jury members questioned the spatial organization of certain spaces with indirect natural lighting. They also considered the proposed treatment of the courtyard complex.
(From jury report)
(Unofficial automated translation)
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- Photograph of Model
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