A CHRISTIAN MONASTERY

Abstract

A small monastery today exists hidden in a forest hill at Bukit Batok. The forest hill lies at the edge of a housing estate and defines the south-eastern edge of the new town. The land on which the monastery sits is owned by a band of Franciscans who have set up house there since 1958. This group of Franciscans serve the parish community of Bt.Batok. It is proposed to enlarge the order to sixty friars to expand their parish duties. The site can be likened to an "oasis between two deserts" because it is a forest-sanctuary-on-a-hill Sandwiched between a dense housing estate to its north and a light industrial estate to its south. It is an island of calmness and contemplation afloat in a sea of rapid modern development. Given the context, the first issue is how the architecture responds to the full potentials of the site in such a way as to fulfill this role as an "oasis-sanctuary" in Bukit Batok; as an "island of refuge" at the edge of a dense housing estate. The monastic order views their "island of refuge" as a recreation of an ideal sanctuary-world in which man and nature exist in tandem. The architecture has to co-exist with nature in such a way as to realise this sanctuary-world.