2014 - 2015
The Ghost in the Machine
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Juris Platacis (1st Year)
The Humanist Monastery
This project is a Humanist monastery in Central London which aims to promote secular spirituality. While arguing that the future ideology of religious institutions is non-theistic, this project seeks inspiration from monastic traditions as a way to evangelize Humanism. This worldview was chosen as it has an underdeveloped architectural heritage compared to other non-theistic regions, such as secular Buddhism.
The location of the monastery, close to a busy street in the City of London and next to the famous St Mary-le-Bow church, serves as an advertisement while an adjoining square invites people to slow down and familiarize themselves with the new institution. The monastery has a selection of publicly accessible spaces – an art gallery, a cafe with a bookshop, and a multi-purpose hall – all located on the ground floor and grouped around a new public courtyard which is carved into the urban fabric linking Cheapside and Watling Street. An external ramp links non-public functions of the monastery thus animating the exterior by processions of monks.
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Find out more about Juris’s topic with the research article ->
The location of the monastery, close to a busy street in the City of London and next to the famous St Mary-le-Bow church, serves as an advertisement while an adjoining square invites people to slow down and familiarize themselves with the new institution. The monastery has a selection of publicly accessible spaces – an art gallery, a cafe with a bookshop, and a multi-purpose hall – all located on the ground floor and grouped around a new public courtyard which is carved into the urban fabric linking Cheapside and Watling Street. An external ramp links non-public functions of the monastery thus animating the exterior by processions of monks.
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Find out more about Juris’s topic with the research article ->
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