Detail of the project 2021

searching-for-god-contemplative-complex-for-people-seeking-spiritual-answers / Kamil Lipski

Group leader designer Kamil Lipski
Location Pisary, Poland
Additional participants
Supervisor Jan Kubec, PhD Eng.
Co-Supervisors
University Silesian University of Technology
Faculty Faculty of Architecture
Nation University Poland

Description of the project

In the era of a spiritual crisis and universal changes in the social, cultural and technological spheres, the need to search for God becomes even more difficult to implement. Relevant questions that concern the spiritual realm remain unanswered or never asked. The spaces in which we live and dwell on a daily basis also interfere with our ability to undertake spiritual reflections, focusing on its visual and material qualities, while giving up any higher-order values.

The project does not try to answer bothering questions of a philosophical and spiritual nature, but to allow a search for it, by placing the user in the context of time, silence and solitude. Architecture in this sense plays the role of an intermediary between the real and supernatural world, operating with the basic values that have been present in architecture for hundreds of years – light, mass, void, structure and order. Nature and landscape also play an important role in the project, as elements that bring joy and comfort, and enter into a both tense and harmonious relationship with the architecture.

The entire complex consists of a central part, referring to the archetype of the monastery, and twelve oratorios. The arrangement of the central part refers to the historical form of a closed structure based on the “claustrum” archetype, which was to radically cut off the inside from the outside. A slight breaking and opening of the structure alludes to the symbolic invitation of every person undertaking spiritual struggles. The key element of the complex are twelve oratorios scattered in the landscape, which enter into a tense relationship with nature, enabling a spiritual and physical journey through the entire spectrum of spiritual sensations and impressions, based on the experiences and thoughts of St. John of the Cross.

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General planimetry

Plants

Prospects

Sections

Sketches, notes

Digital animation
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