SILENT MEDITATION FOREST CABINS COMPETITION

Among the array of choices available to connect us with our past, with nature, and with our own essences, meditative thinking stands out as a uniquely rewarding ritual. To provide space for people to approach these experiences, the proposed meditative cabins are conceived as discrete and solitary, yet connected and vibrant. Each cabin provides a space to rest, contemplate, and to be absorbed by one’s surroundings. The cabins are porous to the outside: they position the inhabitant in a sheltered zone that can close to provide shelter and quiet or open to nature.

Three prototypes serve unique purposes: a single unit provides shelter for a sole guest or couple, a double offers space for two guests, and an open pavilion with a covered woodshed provides space for small gatherings and group meditation: for collectively eating and sharing time together.

Meditation spaces are located above dwelling programs. Guests sit quietly in meditation niches that face outward toward the forest. Hanging wildflowers and local vegetation create living screens that mediate between each visitor and her outside environment. By pressing together foreground and background into a single middle-ground, they filter light, sound and air but create a cohesive internal world through visual closure.