Solitude in the city : the open cloister

Abstract

This project develops a design for a Trappist monastery to be built within the Auckland central business district (C.B.D) area.

This is an investigation into the opportunity of learning from various architectural cultures. Specifically, this project begins to investigate the selected monastic communities and the architectural principles related to them. These relevant principles are obtained and applied to a city context in New Zealand.

The Trappist monastic order was selected due to the spiritual requirements and how it follows parallel to the peaceful space required for this project. The monastic typology acts as a precedent in which the architectural principles have the chance to be expended within a typology with which New Zealand is unfamiliar.

This project involves the design of a Trappist monastery based upon traditional functions and requirements. The monastic ideal of solitude is used in the design of this project along with the practical approach of a brewery. This is to fulfil the financial requirements of running the monastery along with the integration of the monks and the surrounding community. This function follow past requirements of Trappist monastic orders to help create a revenue stream to function.

Auckland City was selected due to the current lack of integration of spiritual and public spaces; this project presents a way to change this. The buildings pliability was be looked at to ensure a result that is suited to the particular factors of Auckland City. The development of design investigation uses various methods to create a cumulative synthesis of research by, for and into the design - providing an architectural resonance with all the required encompassing ideas.

This explanatory document describes the formal and theoretical processes taken in response to the research question.

There are two main paths of questioning that will be followed in this research. Firstly, what exactly are the architectural characteristics of the monastery, does this architecture relate to the nature of the space within, and if so, how? Secondly, does the relationship between religion and spirituality become evident in the spaces of the urban monastery, and give clues as to ways of designing these spaces?

Site: 20 Drake Street (on the corner of Drake and Centre Streets) in the Victoria Quarter Precinct in Auckland’s CBD.