Competition entry for Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition in 2007.
The retreat creates two distinct meditative spaces through its relationships to the landscape. The first, a floating wooden deck measures the falling forest floor below. The second, a small, dimly lit enclosure sinks through the ground. Both intensify a spiritual experience of the place.
The building, designed and executed while at Auburn University Rural Studio, serves a small community called Masons Bend. The process of developing the program, the architecture, and its execution was all initially open. After researching the needs of Masons Bend’s citizens, we proposed a public, multifunctional, open-air space on a privately owned site. While the site is awkward and small, it addresses and adjoins the three extended families that make up the community. Design addresses the privately owned, yet publicly accessible space.