bureau SLA

Buddhist Meditation Centre Metta Vihara . Hengstdijk

bureau SLA . + dezeen

The Buddhist Meditation Centre Metta Vihara is located in Hengstdijk – a small village near the Belgian border – in a remote area of the Netherlands.

The new accommodation provides 26 beds in 13 one and two person bedrooms, a meditation hall, library, and dining hall. Form and materials used in the centre relate to the rural vernacular building, but used in a new and fresh way. Our overall design concept was to design a building that, while beautiful, wasn’t overly comforting. This is in line with the philosophy that, while on retreat, one should feel relaxed, but not necessarily ‘at home’.
As a result, Metta Vihara has strong aesthetics that feature robust and raw materials. The Metta Vihara building is the first newly built meditation centre in the Netherlands.

Project: Buddhist Meditation Centre Metta Vihara
Start design: 2009
Start building: 9/2011
Opening: 6/2012
Gross Area: 465 m2
Building costs: ca. €650,000 ex. VAT
Design: bureau SLA
Client: Metta Vihara
Address: Hengstdijkse Kerkstraat 36, Hengstdijk, The Netherlands
Program: 13 bedrooms, meditation hall, library and dining hall
Contractor: Van Kerckhoven Bouw, Kloosterzande
Structural Engineer: Sineth Engineering, Schiphol
Sustainability: Sunraytec, Woerden
Project team: Peter van Assche, Hiske van der Meer, Gonçalo Moreira, Charlotte Vermaning, Justyna Osiecka