Monasticism

I'm finding some interesting information about the layout of religious communities and how these typical layouts evolved over time.

In the first few centuries A.D. there were many hermits living in the wilderness trying to imitate Jesus's 40 days in the wilderness as well as other Old Testament prophets who spent many days in the wilderness in prayer. Even back then most people were unable to "rough it" by themselves, so communities of these hermits started to develop, often as a group of huts around a common center. This common center often had the hut of some famous hermit who led the others in the group. The most famous of these hermits was Saint Anthony, who is considered the father of monasticism.

Eventually these groups of huts got so crowded that they had to begin to organize themselves into something more orderly. What resulted was the huts arranged in a grid pattern like a planned town or military camp. As these communities' success grew and they accumulated wealth, they had to start thinking about security. The detached houses gave way to the walled groups of large buildings clustered around one or more courtyards (cloisters). This seems to be the arrangement at most abbeys you see today.

Kibbutz Lotan

www.flickr.com

Kibbutz Lotan is an intentional community in Israel. It is an eco village where people can come to bird watch or learn about ecological approaches to community development. The buildings are geodesic domes made of straw bales covered in earth plaster. I think most of the buildings were built by people while they were participating in the Kibbutz's workshops. Originally they were intended to be passively cooled and heated, but it turns out the Negev Desert's heat was just too much to deal with. The kibbutz now uses electricity produced by alternative energy sources to heat and cool the dwellings.

Permaculture and recycling are other major parts of the the Kibbutz. I'm just now learning what permaculture is, but so far I think it is about making buildings, communities, and farms that are modeled after natural ecosystems.

There is also a spiritual or religious component to the Kibbutz, but I don't really know too much about it. I think it may have something to do with Reform Judaism.

Here is the link to the kibbutz's website:

http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/

Subiaco Abbey

I was driving the long way home through west Arkansas one day and I saw what looked like a medieval castle rising out of the farmland. Turns out it was Subiaco Abbey, a monastery that was established there in the late 19th century.

Google Earth

Subiaco is definitely an intentional community. I'm not sure if it's entirely self-sufficient, but if it is not then it is still able to mostly take care of itself. It has a sawmill for making its own lumber. It also has farming operations, producing both cash crops and produce for its own use, beef cattle breeding, vineyards, and horticultural products. They also make peanut brittle and hot sauce that is popular throughout Arkansas. There is also a tailor who makes the special clothes that monks must wear.

The abbey also has a retreat center for overnight visitors' lodging and a Catholic boarding school (Subiaco Academy).

As a Benedictine monastery, the 43 monks must follow a strict daily and weekly schedule of prayer, prayerful scripture reading, attending mass, long periods of silence, and working in their specialized area. These specialized areas include farming, construction/maintenance, teaching at the school, business operations, and ministering to the local communities.

Here is their website: http://countrymonks.org.2.ecatholicwebsites.com/index.cfm?active=1

The rest of the project

Here are the rest of the drawings for Crabtree Grove:

Crabtree Grove's Large Gathering Space

This first image is a plan view of Crabtree Grove's larger gathering space. Below it are some sections, and at the bottome is a shade study. I put together the shade study after I had designed the space. Had I done it sooner, I would have adjusted the design since I didn't realize how shady the space would be in the winter. However, it does get quite a bit of sun in the summer like I was hoping it would.



Masterplan Bird's-eye Views

Here are a couple of bird's-eye views of the master plan:

Crabtree Grove Masterplan

I'm going to start posting parts of my project for a design review earlier this week. These sheets are about the master plan.

Buildable Space

I found this interesting blog post about the percentage of space that cities devote to streets, parking, and buildings. An interesting next step would be to compare these different percentages of land uses to other characteristics such as land value, quality of life, crime, traffic collisions, pedestrian collisions...

http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011/12/we-are-25-looking-at-street-area.html

Arcosanti

I thought I'd look up and post a few pictures of Arcosanti, Paolo Soleri's urban laboratory in the Arizona desert (all photos are from flickr):