MATTHEW J. LUSK, RA, NCARB​

An investigation of design languages, paired with an experiential narrative and interrogation of site conditions, served as the design vehicle for this 35-acre Monastery complex. Foundations of landscape architecture and building-site systems integration remained the focus of design, allowing for the articulation of a multi-faceted program and site arrangement strategy. Existing, historic ruins in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park provided a variety of conditions to respond to, from an axial arrangement strategy to an array of experiential attributes, including tension, threshold, topographic zones, density, and vistas.

Upon arrival, one escapes the city grid and enters a wooded drive, leaving their vehicle and worries behind to access a community market, overlooking a formal orchard and seven acres of agricultural fields in the distance. Should visitors wish to pursue the built silhouettes in the wooded distance, they move toward the rear, private clearing of the site, where the Monastery’s 5-acres of developed programmatic components are located. Public access is mitigated to maintain privacy for the active Monks, whose living, learning, and worship zones are aggregated around a series of ‘Wellness Nodes,’ allowing for a variety of spatial experiences that derive from the existing context. At an architectural scale, sustainable building-site systems are implemented to maximize existing topographic and climatic conditions.