Meandering in the City of God

Thesis: The 21st Century Monastery In NYC

Finalist Award in Undergraduate Thesis
Fall 2019 - Spring 2020 
Professor: Hilary Bryon
Site: Brooklyn, NYC
Individual Work 

      God’s city, a Benedictine monastery, unfolds itself through the map, where a hierarchy of lines, arrows, signs, and shapes orchestrate dynamic yet structured sequences of spatial experiences. For the monks, the city of God is ordered by the restrictive routine of prayer and silence as detailed in the Rule of St. Benedict, but in this thesis, also by an idea of urban life. This city’s map facilitates superimposed and autonomous experiences for both the devout community of monks and the city dweller. Spatial sequences and picturesque experiences, whether heedless or heedful, straight or wavering, processing or strolling, are underpinned by conscious principles of order tuned to the role of the ambulant observer. Meandering, in any city, reveals the city’s spirit and essence in a perspectival view; one is pulled through space by elements at all scales and accompanied by sounds, smells, touch, and perceptions. The monastery’s plan frames views for both the inhabitant and the visitor.

    By situating the Benedictine monastery both as an urban environment and in an urban environment, the project aims to order and orchestrate the movement of three moving spectators: the monks on their hourly processions, the neighborhood congregants visiting each Sunday for mass, and the ferry-riding public traversing Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Monastic Typology versus Urban Typology

The similarities between a monastery and a city can be found in relating a monk’s restricted schedule for prayer and a typical city dweller’s daily routine. According to the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks awake around five a.m. followed by the first service of Vigils to break the darkness. At eight p.m., the monks conclude the day with the final service of Compline. Also, driven by the rules of the society, city dwellers follow a daily regimen. Most of the city’s inhabitants awake at a fixed hour between six to eight a.m.. After getting ready for the day, sometimes they rush for work without having breakfast. Daily work activities for urban inhabitants varies, but it is often regulated and recurring in support of their particular job. After work, they close the day with a meal with family or friends, or with a commute to their place of rest.

Monks’ Schedule versus City Dwellers’ Schedule 

The site is an open lot with approximately 7 acres adjacent to the East River in Brooklyn, and it is part of the existing grid urban structure. Surrounded by a mix-use of commercial and residential buildings with low profiles, the site is a pleasant scale for pedestrians; there is less activity and reduced noise compared to Manhattan on the opposing side of the river.

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People traverse between Brooklyn and Manhattan through the site, either taking a ferry to cross the river or hopping a bus to connect with the subway. By embracing the exigencies of the site comprehensively, the project aims to integrate with the urban context. 

The Site in New York City

Investigating the compositions of the overall layout with circulated path navigating between each part.

Adjustment of the design to the surroundings with explorations of boundary conditions, entrance positions, and the circulation within and outside the complex’s perimeter.

Integration of the design of the section with the plan and exploring the spatial experience through light and silence.

Studies here juxtapose the circulation of three meandering groups: the monks, the ferry riders, and the neighborhood congregants, which is best seen in the design of the cloister, the church, and the dormitory.

Development of each space and questioning the relationship between parts and whole, private and public, seeing and being seen.

Rearrangement of the circulation paths within the cloister and the church, with an aim to reveal both a divine order and a city order, as well as environmental forces, and as framed by the architecture.

The monastery’s program contains:
• A cloister supporting the daily, meditative processions of the monks, grasped of views for the neighborhood worshippers, and moments of pausing for visitors to and from Manhattan
• Ninety-six cells for monks, lay brothers, and visitors
• A church serving the monks as well as the neighborhood 
• A chapter-house for meetings of the monastic community
• A refectory for contemplative dining at lunch and dinner
• A library with classroom and workshops
• A Sunday school for the neighborhood
•A reception house to receive visitors
•A gateway entrance and path welcoming and guiding the neighbors for Sunday mass

The design starts by systematically using a 12 by 12-foot grid as the underlying order for the overall layout. And each program contains a courtyard that engages with nature. Within the perimeter boundary walls, measuring 360 feet at each side, the complex is carefully arranged around a central cloister (or courtyard) that engages the programs, contexts, and people living within or passing through the complex. The dormitory and church dominate the west and south sides of the monastery, respectively, while the other smaller-scale programs interweave and link smaller courtyards across the site. By studying the juxtapositions between private and public, as well as repeating and singular architectural elements, with examining the relationship between parts to the whole, the monastery aims for a unified totality acting like a city, as well as a part of existing urban contexts. 

Through pausing, walking, processing, gathering, etc., the monks spend their days of prayers and silence within the walls of their sanctuary around the central cloister. Commuters to and from Manhattan or occasional visitors cross the river and engage the monastery as a threshold. These visitors slip into the cloister below-grade, circle its boundary, entering or leaving the complex through the main Brooklyn gate or the East River portal.

The monastery also welcomes its neighbors in Brooklyn every Sunday for mass. The worshipers share the space of the church with the monks, yet they while have a discrete path towards their own seating area.  A screen of rotating doors separates the two groups and is another form of  play with the idea of visual interaction through seeing and being seen. The three user groups and their discrete rationale behind their movement uniquely informed the design of the cloister and church. The differently orchestrated architectural sequences and spaces engage the law of meander, with its requisite elements of path, destination, successive views, and topographical variation, as a basic idea to call forth the city-ness of the monastery. 

The south elevation clads the monks’ dormitory and the church. This facade is not often seen.  Order is established through regular window slits and the modulated housing units comprising the dormitory.  

The western boundary, largely dominated by the dormitory, faces the east river. The housing volumes are shielded with a translucent glass screen-wall, which reflects the natural environment and frames Manhattan across the river. 

The visitors arriving by ferry from Manhattan approach the monastery at the northern corner of the site and the initial view presents a composition of spaces at different scales and depths. In contrast with solid wall planes, the voids between the repeated columns and framing grids form the boundary and soften the edge condition so as to offer a welcoming gesture to the visitors.

The eastern boundary adjacent to the neighborhood is the main entry facade as it receives most of the population arriving at the site. This elevation wall contains a bus stop adjacent to the church entrance, as well as a monastery entrance portal facing the road. The bounding wall is also the perimeter walls of the Sunday school and church. Combining solid walls, column screens, and translucent glass, this facade creates a dialogue between private and public. 

Meandering in the City of God

The Cells - Meandering as One 

Sketches in question of the cell

Plan of Cells

The Shared Courtyards for Monks with Path Navigating through

By thinking about the scales of urban streets, the circulation of the dormitory aims to achieve a hierarchical system that facilitates differentiated relationship between private and public, the individual and the collective--similar to a city.

Axonometric Drawing Showing the Arrangement of the Dormitory

Meandering in the City of God

Light Apertures Model

The Entrance 

The Seatings

The Altar

Section Diagrams

The Church Hallway Constructed with Light and Repetition

Plan of the Church

indicating the spatial arrangements of the entrance, the altar, and the seatings

The Altar, Seating, and Light

Perspective Section

revealing the distinctive light conditions across the space 

Meandering in the City of God

The Cloister - Meandering Within and Through

Constructed with architectural elements and natural features, the circular cloister engages two levels and frames the intertwining yet separate movement of three observers ambulating within and through the monastery. Each group of spectators has a discrete, scenographically planned path toward a destination, yet one’s meandering path does not intervene directly with the meandering route of other occupants. The intertwining juxtapositions of paths create interesting visual scenes unique to each spectator’s destination. 

Abstract Composition Drawings

The Path for Visitors Leading towards the Below-grade Cloister

The Path for Monks' Procession Leading towards the Church

 The Cloister with Fountain and the Exit to the Main Street

The perspective section cutting through north and south direction is trying to depict the three spectators’ movements and the arrangements within the complex. The central cloister with a path leading towards is receiving the visitors commuting from or to Manhattan. They walk down to the below grade, ambulate around the central, and then leave the monastery through the exit on the main street. It might provide them with a moment of pause for conversations while they rush for destinations or a path for strolling and meander. The space on the left of the section is indicting the gathering space in the church reserved for the neighborhood congregants on every Sunday mass. On the right is the refectory where monks gather on lunch and dinner. The arrangements between each space with the complex aims for an ideal city for monks to live and navigate through.

Perspective Section through NS of the site