Felsentor is a Zen Buddhist-inspired community located in Switzerland, offering workshops, seminars and retreats.

For this project, using shop and loft drawings, we produced a complete cut list for all the wood, with a numbering system to identify them so they could be tracked during manufacturing and installation. After dimensioning and cutting out the wood, all the pieces were planed, oiled, wrapped with markings so each piece could be identified, packed in 40 foot sea containers and shipped by train to Houston, by boat to Rotterdam, by barge to Basel, by truck to Lucerne and then bundled in 100kg units to be flown by helicopter to the site.   A crew of Swiss and Californian men and women assembled the structure on site.

For more information on Felsentor: www.felsentor.ch

The zendo is set between three promontories. A naturally occurring spring is channeled into a pond in front of the main hall to add a water element. Despite questions about the impact of the temple on its surroundings that came up during the planning process, the building is hardly visible until you are already inside the compound.

The meditation room was left open without raised tan because many different kinds of spiritual practitioners use the space.  All the wood except some structural members are made of salvaged wood or rejects from other projects.

Dormitory

The winter snow made the wide overhang a challenge for the engineers.  The second floor balcony allowed outdoor walking meditation even in a storm.

[Photo credit: Live Edge]