NEW ZEALAND

Meditation, in its practice, takes on many forms. Some prefer an absolute vacuous void while others enjoy the background noise of an urban context - some take an introverted approach, others an extroverted. This meditation pavilion allows visitors to recalibrate their experience to a broad spectrum of meditation contexts, all with a grip on the natural surroundings of the project site. The open, more public area invites the passerby to engage with the pavilion by blurring the boundaries between the exterior context and a semi-public interior meditation; punctuated by a vertical element and fireplace marking a place of gathering. The dome-like space, on the other hand, offers a more introverted experience for meditation - one that embraces its occupants, holds its surroundings sacred, and frames off the periphery.

The composition and assembly techniques implemented on the pavilion have both experiential and pragmatic goals. There are two primary structural layers at play here. The first layer defines the semi-private meditation space in the dome-like structure and semi-public open meditation space punctuated by the vertical fireplace element. These two components also function structurally as load-bearing site-cast concrete elements. They define space and provide support for the skeletal structure of the main canopy, the second structural layer. This skeletal structure is comprised of a series of flat CNC cut weathering steel components. This approach allows for a high degree of customization while also allowing the overall skeleton to be flat-packed for transport and simple interlocking assembly on site. The contrast of heavy and light of these two layers carries through to the experiential qualities of the pavilion. The heavy load-bearing elements offer stability, a grounded relationship to the site’s natural surroundings. The skeletal structure offers a contrast to this stability by seemingly defying gravity from particular points of view. The dome-like element is clad in an aluminum skin and the frame includes a luminous base that is intended to catalyze the recalibration process from the normative of one’s everyday life to a transcendent state of being; active and visually stimulating in some areas then subdued and attenuated in others.