Sound of Silence: The Monastery as an Instrument

The architecture of the monastery serves as the instrument to the interplay of solitude, separation, silence, and light. The proposal conceptually identifies three different types of grouping: the public, the collective, and the singular. The public grouping elicits a sense of temporality and is primarily made up of the hostel and exterior spaces. Here, silence is the most loosely regulated and has more permeable connections to the exterior landscape. The collective deals with frequent interpersonal yet uninflected encounters, where one only physically gathers but does not interact.

This grouping is made up of the church, refectory, and library. Unlike the public realm and need for solitude, the proposal identifies the cell as an internalization that faces outwards. It is carefully disconnected from the monastery and connected to the landscape both visually and auditorily.