Puntaje de medias por categorías de valores

opposite, bottom: A gap between walls of the historic cemetery and the new addition defines the entrance to the site.

opposite, top: The cemetery extension includes a mortuary chapel, an urn wall, and a burial ground sited on a gently sloping hill with a grand view of the Rhine Valley and the Vorarlberg countryside.

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Floor plan

Section and detail of the floating rammed earth wall

Section with detail of recessed light embedded in rammed earth wall

Elevation

71 top left: The two large asymmetrical oak

doors were made from wood harvested in Vorarlberg.

bottom left: A vertical piece of wood embedded into the horizontal layers of earth evokes the form of the Christian cross.

right: A rammed earth wall floats above the floor, creating a slot that illuminates the interior.

CEMETERy ExTENSION AND CHAPEL OF REST

DESIgN FIRM

New Mexico is the epicenter of earthen con-struction in North America, but most buildings are historic mud brick structures, the legacy of either the Native Americans or the Spanish settlers who have occupied New Mexico since the sixteenth century. Because of strict zoning regulations, new buildings con-structed of earth often emulate the styles that emerged from these vernacular traditions;

therefore, rarely in New Mexico is an earthen building a reflection of modern architectural design. The Center of Gravity Foundation Hall, designed by John Frane and Hadrian Predock of Predock Frane Architects, however, is an exception.

The Foundation Hall is part of the Bodhi Mandala Zen Center, a Buddhist compound in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, that has served as a center for the study of Buddhism for more than thirty years. Used primarily as a teaching and meditation hall for the compound, the building is also used as a community meeting place for the town of Jemez Springs and serves as a retreat and meeting place for people and organizations across the country.

While the building references elements found in traditional New Mexican architec-ture, as well as the architecture of the former Boy Scout camp that the Zen Center now

inhabits, in its use of massive earth walls and metal roofs the building is uniquely con-temporary. The center also combines those elements with interpretations of Japanese Zen Buddhist architecture. Here the use of con-trasting natural and synthetic materials, passive and active environmental systems, and relationships between lightness and heaviness create an impressive space dedicated to the daily ritual of traditional Zen practice.

Monks and students enter from opposite sides of the building between the rammed earth and polycarbonate walls that define the space where rituals take place every day between sunrise and sunset. At dawn, sunlight pierces through pieces of plate glass turned on edge and built into a series of sliding wood panels that make up the east facade, creating a luminous glow that marks the beginning of the day. By midday, ambient light fills the room through a slot between the hovering, folded roof and translucent polycarbonate walls that are a counterpoint to the thick rammed earth.

These walls, similar to both the rice paper walls of traditional Japanese architecture and the deerskin or mica windows of Native American and Spanish architecture in Northern New Mexico, create an even glow inside. Later in the day, the western walls glow with the same intensity as the surrounding mountains at sunset. At night, recessed lights in the interior illuminate the building through the translucent wall panels, transforming the building into a lantern.

Beautiful phenomenological experiences are not the only outcome of the building’s

materials and forms, however. Jemez Springs is located in a high-altitude desert with an extreme range of temperatures, and these materials also provide active and passive envi-ronmental controls. The thermal mass of the rammed earth walls keeps out the hot temperatures of the summer and radiates this stored heat during the cold desert nights.

Thermal transfer is also limited by the multi-layer polycarbonate walls, which serve as an insulator. The cantilevered roof edges, over-hanging as much as 14 feet in places, block the summer sun but allow the lower winter sun to penetrate the openings to warm the interior and the rammed earth walls. Sliding panels 36 feet long on the east facade and the entry doors to the west enable summer breezes to flow through the building, providing additional cooling through cross ventilation. The hot water from the springs for which Jemez Springs is named heats the building via radia-tors located at the perimeter of the building’s interior.

Because of the translucent walls and transparent glass below the eaves, artificial light is not needed for reading during most of the daylight hours, reducing the building’s life-cycle costs. The soil used to construct the rammed earth walls was recycled from an excavation at a nearby construction site.

Further ecological consideration was taken by using beams made of recycled wood that support the hovering roof, which itself drains water into a catch basin for use in irrigation.