For the design of the retreat center, we focused on the space itself. By reinterpreting the relationship between architecture and nature, we hope to awaken the intimate relationship between human body and terrain.

The starting point of the project is the human instinct to be curious about the ground. The site is in a forest. The building consists of two parts, one is the space under the inverted conical roof, and the other is the cross-shaped corridor. The huge roof is supported by eight sets of core tubes that wrap the auxiliary space, and the four sides that are opened to the outside undertake daily functions. The remaining volume presents a gesture of raising the corner of the ground, and the sloping roof invites visitors to have a personal meditation, and the transition between the light and shadow will produce different atmospheres. People enter the cloister through a cross-shaped passage. The sloping roof hangs over the cloister which can generate a sense of seeking, the light down the roof points to the inner space, and the light at the end combined with the raising roof suggests a new experience. In the corner of the cloister diagonally expanded space gives visitors a kind of contemplation, and the cloister leads the visitor to a hidden interior, where courtyards for contemplation are provided. In the center of the whole building the gigantic roof points towards the deeper land. The theme of this space is the celebration, expressing the delicate relationship between nature and man-made intangible intervention under the passage of time by capturing the possibility of the memory of the site.

In the building people are connected to nature in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual ways. People walk under the mysterious inverted cone roof, feel the change of light and shadow, and achieve self-renewal.