Meditation club

Core II Studio • Situate

Harvard GSD • Instructor: Jeffry Burchard • Spring 2016

Studies suggest that one million more Americans take up meditation every year because they are suffering from chronic pain or post-traumatic stress. The project proposal is to design a meditation club for people to practice mindfulness in downtown Boston. Specifically, the club is the place for people to share, teach, and practice methods of mental purification, which allow one to face life’s tensions and problems in a calm and balanced way. The club provides an environment where the contemplative life can be developed and protected amid the complexities of city living.

The project investigates geometrical exploration to create spatial fluidity. As a meditation club, one experiences the building as a spatial encounter. While the continuity of the design promotes social interaction, one can find private space within public space. The design uses surface language along with a modular system for spatial organization; it is composed of spatial sequences that challenge the distinction between inside and outside, open and enclosed, dark and light.