adrift on the pequod,

space out of time

A Trappist Monastery off the Coast of Santa Barbara, CA.

2011/12 M.Arch Thesis Prize, University of Washington.

The thesis proposes the design of a Trappist monastery on an abandoned oil rig off the coast of California in the year 2087.

Its starting point is a dialectic drawn from qualities perceived in site and program: here the terrifying emptiness of the sea causes space to overwhelm time, yet here also the strict ritual of monastic life causes time to overwhelm space.  Therefore in the combination of site and program exists a dialectic between empty space out of time and ordered ritual grounded in time. 

The thesis thus asks: what happens when architecture occupies the liminal space between two qualities?  How do we design spaces that meander on the edge, in the edge, existing in between to become part of both but fully neither?

The design of the monastery seeks spatial and experiential richness found in interpretive in-exhaustiveness and an opening into dialogue between space and person.  It explores the hypothesis that an architecture adrift in a constantly changing relationship between two sides of a dialectic is a way of creating this enduring dialogue.