Diploma Thesis

Concept and text: Marcell Szuhanyik

As we enter the 21st century, retreats are not just religiously motivated and led. Through a variety of systems of thought, as part of physical and spiritual exercises, and also as a contrast to our everyday life, time spent alone or in a group with the same purpose in a separate place has become a priority. The design programme at issue creates this separate space, taking into account the potential for different uses to coexist, providing space for both encounter and separation.
Avoiding garish and loud architecture and egocentric design, these buildings are positioned on the slope of the hillside – the community building is covered by an extensive green surface, the separated private platforms are hidden under onion-shaped domes structured by natural (Voronoi) fractal breakdowns among the trees. The final double-domed layout, separated by a pressed belt, emerged from the structural analysis of the buildings volume. The chief architects of the dome structure had the unconcealed intention of creating a modern memorial to the rib-grid vaults of Gothic churches, paying homage to the Christian origins of hermits and hermitages and also visually linking the building to the sanctity hidden in the much-seen stone.