Meditation Hall

Vimutti Valley · Package 01 · schematic design · revision 6, 31 August 2026

One room that has to hold forty practitioners seated on the floor and a row of nine monks on a low raised stage, with a principal Buddha image mounted on the wall behind them and a drop-down screen for teaching. The brief was 120–150 m². The scheme lands at 138.6 m² internal.

138.6 m²internal area

11.00 × 12.60internal, metres

40practitioners

9monks on the stage

4.20 mclear ceiling

Sheets in this package

Design Brief

What the room must do, what has already been decided and why, what is still open, and what we are asking the consultant to resolve. Read this first.

Open the brief

Floor Plan

Scaled plan at 1:100, north wall elevation, section through the centre line, projection geometry, zone schedule and the reasoning for every dimension.

Open the floor plan

Ceiling Plan

Reflected ceiling plan: projector and motorised screen, eight lighting circuits with scenes, air conditioning, sound, detectors, and the clash rules.

Open the ceiling plan

Reference

Wat Phra Dhammakaya Ibaraki, Japan — the room this design follows, with the principal Buddha image's real dimensions and how it is mounted.

Open the reference

Decisions already taken — please do not reopen without discussing

Decision	Reason
One external door only	Mosquitoes and acoustics. The side walls stay solid.
Stage front is one flush plane	A donor kneels right up against it to make an offering. Nothing may project at knee or shin height — no apron, no step, no nosing, no skirting.
Stage access from the sides, at the north end	Nobody mounts the stage in front of the congregation, and no stair opening breaks the flush front.
No cabinets flanking the image	The image must read as floating in an unbroken field. Storage went into a chest under the stage instead.
Backdrop is a disc proud of the wall	Not a recess. This is how the reference is built, and it removes any need for a thick wall.
Screen hangs at the stage front line	The furthest back it can go while still being in front of the monks rather than behind them. Working shown in the floor plan.

The open items, in one line each

Q1 — the wall that carries the 112 kg image, cantilevered at +1.425 m.
Q2 — ceiling build-up and the slab soffit level.
Q3 — the mechanical load, properly calculated.
Q4 — means of escape for one exit at this area and occupancy.
Q5 — acoustics, for silence and for chanting.
Q6 — floor build-up, with a solid deck under the monk row.
Q7 — site, orientation and envelope.

Each is set out in full in the design brief.