A place of silence
Meditation Hall near Beijing by Atelier Deshaus
© Tian Fangfang
At this Buddhist retreat, heavy walls of natural stone and roofs of lightweight steel work together to create a perfect oasis of silence. The new building by Atelier Deshaus stands in a tributary valley along the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall, around 120 km northeast of the Chinese capital, Beijing.
© Jonathan Leijonhufvud
The coal mining and terraced agriculture of previous centuries have visibly marked the landscape: the architects have taken up the structure of the terraces, which are about 1,60 m tall, in their design. Visitors enter the complex from above, through a narrow passage in a natural-stone wall, and attain a courtyard encompassed by concrete walls and dark roofs of steel sheeting.
In the middle of the yard, five boulders rise from the light-coloured flooring of chiselled concrete – an arrangement designed by landscape architect and Buddhist monk Shunmyō Masuno, as were all other outdoor areas of the complex. The boulders symbolize the five skandhas, or aggregate factors of human experience, as described in Buddhist teachings: form, sensation, perception, mental activity and consciousness.
© Su Shengliang
One side of the courtyard opens onto a hall with statues of the Buddha. Via a series of stairways and smaller interior spaces with their own yards – including rooms for meditation, reading and writing respectively – visitors come to the lower plateau, where the open meditation hall appears with its asymmetrically curved steel roof.
© Tian Fangfang
On every side, the construction rests on two rows of narrow steel supports. A deep, surrounding verandah encompasses the actual interior space, which is itself surrounded by glass facades. To the east, facing the mountains, the terrace walls stack up and block the view. To the west, towards the valley, the view extends into the distance, to the remains of the Great Wall from the Ming era.
Architecture: Atelier Deshaus
Client: Aranya Real Estate Development Co.
Location: Laowa Village, Luanping, Chengde, Hebei Province (CN)
Structural engineering: AND Office, Beijing Yanhuang International Architecture&Engineering Co.
Building services engineering: Beijing Yanhuang International Architecture&Engineering Co.
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