bureau SLA: buddhist meditation centre

‘buddhist meditation centre mette vihara’ by bureau SLA, hengstdijk, the netherlands image © jeroen musch all images courtesy of bureau SLA

in the town of hengstdijk near the belgium/netherlands border, the ‘buddhist meditation centre mette vihara‘ by dutch firm bureau SLA is situated within a barn amidst a rural landscape. inhabitants are members of the triratna community, following a less traditional movement which instead draws from a stream of collective buddhist ideals. the facility offers a meditation hall, library, dining hall and 26 beds within 13 one and two person bedrooms. the vernacular mansard roof and elevations are clad with cost effective and long lasting sheets of corrugated steel. red cedar beams add depth to the planar elevations while marking the horizontal lines at successive stacked panels. white wood frames bordering standard insulated windows buffer the vertical seams. a patchwork effect is created by using three colors with differing densities of corrugation.

leftover wood from the construction scaffolding becomes the cladding on the short ends and terrace walls, adding a sense of warmth. unfinished building materials contribute the interior aesthetic with load bearing walls of unplastered lime stone. MDF sheets coated with tranparent colors are used for partitions to ensure their materiality is visible. concrete floors maintain their raw surfaces while a black bamboo floor in the meditation room. blending into the metal facades, large exterior doors can open to transform into open air meditation. in their closed state, light is filtered to optimize the room’s conditions.

(left) view from the street (right) view from the garden images © jeroen musch

large doors are concealed within the corrugated steel facade image © jeroen musch

room can be used for open air meditation image © jeroen musch

large doors open to transform the intimate space into an ideal environment for open air meditation image © jeroen musch

view from meditation room image © jeroen musch

meditation session image © jeroen musch

library image © jeroen musch

bedroom image © jeroen musch

arcade image © jeroen musch

floor plan / level 0

floor plan / level 1

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project info:

project: buddhist meditation centre metta vihara start design: 2009 start building: 9/2011 opening: 6/2012 gross area: 465 m2 building costs: ca. € 650.000 ex. VAT design: bureau SLA client: metta vihara address: hengstdijkse kerkstraat 36, hengstdijk, the netherlands program: 13 bedrooms, meditation hall, library and dining hall contractor: van kerckhoven bouw, kloosterzande structural engineer: sineth engineering, schiphol sustainability: sunraytec, woerden project team: peter van assche, hiske van der meer, gonçalo moreira, charlotte vermaning, justyna osiecka