Piotr Pasierbinski and Duc Ngo created a design for meditation cabins in Portugal, which was awarded third place in an international competition entitled "Vale de Moses Meditation Cabins" organized by the Bee Breeders platform.
The goal of the competition was to design easy-to-make and spiffy meditation cab ins for the Vale de Moses yoga center located in a beautiful Portuguese valley. The organizers were looking for design ideas for the construction of additional meditation and yoga structures at the center. The facility was to be a space that allows users to connect with the surrounding forest and gardens.
The cabins are located in a Portuguese valley
© Piotr Pasierbinski, Duc Ngo
Out of hundreds of projects submitted from all over the world, the competition jury decided to award third place to the project titled. "komorebi" by the duo Piotr Pasierbiński and Duc Ngo. The jury appreciated the proposal for establishing an interesting relationship with the environment, which allows to create a sense of spirituality and tranquility.
heaven, man, earth
Vale de Moses is a valley located in the heart of Portugal, where man can find balance and his own place in nature. Staying on the hillside, he continuously communes with the panorama, an inseparable part of life.
The cabins allow for tranquility and meditation
© Piotr Pasierbinski, Duc Ngo
As Piotr Pasierbinski says about the inspiration and the project:
The constant horizontal relationship between man and nature prompted us to emphasize and draw attention to the overlooked, equally important, vertical relationship - between heaven, man, and earth. Emotions, the mood of the interior and the austerity of the surroundings were the determining factors for the form. Each element was meant to emphasize the connection between man and nature and the constant passage of time. The interior was built with light coming in through an opening in the roof and a gap around the floor. Its intensity depends on the rhythm and pulse of the clouds. Light coexists equally with darkness. The pyramidal walls have become the roof, sloping inward, detached from the floor, ending below its level. The breeze flowing upward through the interior dynamizes the vertical direction, completes the connection between earth and sky.
simple, austere form and light
The body of the designed cabins has a pyramidal shape with the roof slopes ending below the floor level. The structure supported by three pillars, suspended 2.5 meters above ground level, allows the whole thing to be offset from the floor. This solution made it possible to let in both light, natural breeze and the sounds of nature. The diameter of the inner space is 5 meters, and the height at the top is 7 meters.
construction of the cabins
© Piotr Pasierbinski, Duc Ngo
Theentrance to the cabin is symbolic, emphasizing the vertical connections. To get inside, one must first bend down, walk under the roof, and then climb a ladder. At the entrance, under the structure, you can wash your feet, calm down and prepare for meditation. Translated into philosophical form, the authors sum up the project with the words "bow, path and growth."
The interior of the cabin illuminated by sunlight
© Piotr Pasierbinski, Duc Ngo
The entire body, as well as the interior, was made of a single species of wood, enhancing the impression of rawness. The elements of the backroom - the storage room and the sink - were placed behind a wooden screen, so that they would not be an additional stimulus. The biggest design challenge for the authors was to enforce the final form, without allowing any spatial or functional compromises. At every stage, they tried to return to the core of the idea - the full and seamless blending of spaces and a return to unity with nature.
See also another project awarded in the same competition by architects from FALA Architektura.
compiled by Dobrawa Bies
illustrations courtesy of Piotr Pasierbiński
