The new monastery in the centre of Brussels is an oasis where contemplatives can escape the bustle of the city

In an age of rampant globalization with a dynamic 24-hour economy and urbanization without end, the city will continue to gain ground as the place where people live. Given this detachment from nature, from rural and inhospitable areas to escape to, some will be attracted by the desire to withdraw within this urban fabric. A Carthusian monastery would provide a suitable oasis to accommodate this group of contemplatives. The design for this monastery projected in the centre of Brussels is based on an exploration of the boundaries between literature and architecture. It steps off from William S. Burroughs' novel 'The Ticket That Exploded'. The shock effect of this text is enlisted for a architectural experiment, the psychodyslepticum. This mind-expanding agent with its powerful impact on the psyche is to be deployed in the most economically distressed area of Brussels. Here, a forceful agent is required to break through the accumulation of on-site obstacles to growth and blood flow. The Carthusian monastery is the answer - a place for inner silence for this most introverted of communities.

The monastery occupies a monolith on the rim of the city centre across from the business district. Its oversized walls screen it off completely from its urban setting. The monastics experience the city, their wilderness, only piecemeal and in silence.

You enter the monastery by climbing a 12-metre-tall retractable ladder, a guarantee of exclusivity. Once inside, a network of passages, stairs and jack-up platforms make for a continuity that weaves the various spaces together. You can roam to your heart's content in this edifice, the way city-dwellers can roam through their own labyrinth, the city. The interior is grand and other-worldly. Its spaces are to serve the monastics in their strict faith of contemplation in which they themselves are marginalized. Their goal is spiritual enlightenment through contemplation and, in the process, acceptance of their physical surroundings.

Light deformations of the ground plane dictate the space, giving a subtle twist to monastery life. The psychodyslepticum is taking effect. Caught in an endless space of silence, the Carthusians seek their enlightenment.

The whiteness of the exterior clashes with the existing urban fabric and is etched clearly against the grey haze presiding over Brussels. The monolithic body shocks its surroundings, taking up a position there.

Even the task of getting the monastery on site requires serious contemplation. Only the purest raw materials, free of pollution, may be used to obtain the white concrete surface. This is then polished by hand to a white satin sheen free of every sign of formwork and irregularity. Monastic labour.

This is a monastery in its purest and most elementary form, a decorum for the life of contemplation led by a strict religious order, the Order of Carthusians.

Place of education: TU Eindhoven | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Gijs Wallis de Vries, Jacob Voorthuis, Ralph Brodrück