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Brean Down

United Kingdom

L’Abri

the Rejected Stone

 

The Christian study community built on an existing Palmerston fort

Year  2015

Area  2762 sqm

 

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” 
- Psalms 118:22

 

We live betwixt and between. 


Between life and death, 
       history and future,  
       the heaven and the earth, 
       the decided and undecided. 

 

The French word L’Abri means “shelter“. Based on a model began 1955 in Switzerland, where a Christian couple to open their alpine home for youngsters to find life answers, the new L’Abri positions between an international study centre, a residential community and a retreat for the deep search of blissfulness in everyday survival and communal work.

 

 

The project explores ruin as an exosmotic vessel of the presence of man which contain morphological and anthropological memories. By unleashing the materialistic presence of the ruined abandon fort at the edge of Brean Down, a new layer of experience is added to the pilgrimatic pursuit of earthly-spirituality. The impartation of modern meaning to the fort’s structure also challenges the architectural trend of constantly creating ‘new-new’ in contrast to the revelation of ‘new-old’.
 

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