The central concept behind this endeavor is the overlapping of the three programs of hotel, housing, and monastery. This convergence highlights the natural commonalities that exist among these forms of hospitality, leading to a deeper appreciation of the relationships between living, learning, traveling, and spirituality throughout history and typology. The result aims to provoke a new understanding of these normally separated uses.
For the ruin of the Spanish wall sitting beneath the site, the idea is to excavate down around the walls, transforming the resulting space into a public gallery on the lower level of the new building.
The plaza above the gallery will feature markings delineating the walls. This space, more officially referred to as a bindery, is a space integral to that of a monastery, where artifacts, relics, and art are displayed, in this case, to the public.
The ground floor holds two main voids in the building. The markings of the Spanish wall below inform the massing of the structure, and the programmatic arrangement. One thing to note is that Hotel and Monastery are coupled together, with housing placed across the street. Instead of the hotel building having the more glamorous amenities, I have substituted bar, lounge, pool etc. with programs like soup kitchen, counseling, and community center. This building is meant to serve the community as well as those who choose to seek a space of respite here.
A monastery is a place of religious retreat, a community of monks or nuns who live and work together, dedicating their lives to the practice of spiritual and intellectual pursuits. Today we see that active monasteries have become easily searchable spaces for the traveler. In many cases, abandoned monasteries have been completely succumbed to by the tourism industry as mere hotels. This project is not doing this. This project seeks to challenge the typical reading of a monastery as a singular use and bring it into the world of the public and the city.
By choosing monastery as the “other” in this case, it presents the opportunity for moments for friction and harmony between the programs within the interstitial space of the project. The idea that visitors, residents, and travelers, will be able to watch, hear, interact, and contend with the rituals and physical space of a monastery by sharing hotel with it.
The hotel guest rooms are synonymous with the monastery cell. The conflation of the two make for an interested point of friction, challenging the typical expectations of a hotel stay. The monks and the hotel guests will have the same experience. Upon entry, each cell has a prayer space. The cells facing the street poses balconies screened by perforated brick. Letting in diffused light during the day and acting as a backdrop at night.
Beneath the surface of the existing building lies the original brick façade, by exposing this, this allows for the monastery, also brick, to have a dialogue with this building, while also to the pentimenti present in both gestures. The openings will be removed and be replaced by single pane glass openings, thus simplifying the façade and letting in more light. The interior of the building will be given the same treatment, as well as a brick and concrete balcony structure, replacing the thin metal structure that is currently there, this nodding to the theme of solidity.
The first object of encounter, the lamp is interchangeable with many of the lights throughout the monastery and is akin it a candlestick holder, to be taken with oneself throughout the building. In the chapel space, there is a deep reveal set into the wall in which the lamp can be set. In the cell, the brushed concrete side table and desk both have indentions in which to set the lamp.
The chapel space holds the second object. A basin, made to hold the holy water for the monastic rituals. The basin is made from honed Carrera marble and is nearly flush with the floor of the chapel aside from a 2-inch step, causing one to pause as one bends down to touch the water.
The chapel is a triple height, tiered space with a slim skylight at the top, the walls are solid bring at the base, but perforated as they rise, those allowing those traversing the ramp of the exterior to see into the space. The skin of the space lets in light even at sunrise for morning prayer. At high noon, the light reflects off the holy water.
The building is solid, monolithic.
Yet very porous at times.
The solidity sits directly beside the ruin beneath, adjacent but not being supported by it.
The west façade is one single plane that has a slight facet. Thus, holding the street wall and aspiring to the height of the Feltrinelli building across the street.
Moments of lightness
Moments of darkness.
Moments of friction.
Moments of delicacy.
The building stands as a space for ritual and community.
A space showing its history.
Serving as a beacon for those who seek retreat.
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