Coalescence.

In Collaboration with David Ma.

Semi-finalist entry for the Cambodia Remote Hideout Huts Competition.
Advisors: John Enright, with Leila Khodadad

This project proposes to examine the personal spaces of the Cambodian yoga huts through the typologies of larger places of worship, particularly Hindu temples. Inspired by the organizational layout of these temples, this project aims to provide each hut user with their very own sacred sanctuary. 

This hermitage reappropriates the major components of the temple to that of the hideout- The Mandapa turns into a porch - an exposed gathering space. The Antarala then becomes a hallway that connects the porch and transepts that hold secondary programs like bathroom and storage space to the womb (or sanctum sanctorum) of the temple, where one sleeps. The circumambulation (Pradakshina) wraps around the womb and leads up to a terrace that coincides with the womb, that is this time is exposed to nature, where one performs yoga. 

The use of cladded marble reinforces the monumentality of the entity, and at the same time critiques its symmetry through the apertures and gaps between them, which are brought to life through the symmetrical geometry of the massing itself. 

Through reappropriating programmatic elements of a sacred typology to that of a yoga hut, it reinforces the sacredness of the individual occupant.