Reference

Vimutti Valley · Meditation Hall · the room this design follows

8 · Reference — Wat Phra Dhammakaya Ibaraki, Japan

The reference supplied by the client. The plan adopts its stage height, its side-entry stairs, its flush stage front and its circular backlit niche, and sets the niche out to the real dimensions of the Buddha image.

Meditation room at Wat Phra Dhammakaya Ibaraki, Japan, showing the raised stage with a plain flush timber front, the circular backlit niche and the ceiling-mounted projector — **Fig. 1 — Meditation room, Wat Phra Dhammakaya Ibaraki.** The stage front is a plain unbroken timber board — nothing projects at knee height. The circular backlit niche holds the image with nothing standing on the stage in front of it. Note also what is *not* there: no drop-down screen. A projector is ceiling-mounted at the left and a TV hangs at the right. Image supplied by the client.

Dimension sheet for the principal Buddha image: 1.54 m front width, 0.80 m side width, 1.54 m high, 50 kg; base disc 1.64 m diameter, 0.25 m thick, 62 kg — **Fig. 2 — Principal Buddha image, dimension sheet.** These are the figures the niche is set out from. Image supplied by the client.

The principal Buddha image mounted on a white circular backdrop disc that stands proud of the wall, seated on a gold base disc that cantilevers out from it — **Fig. 3 — The image as mounted.** This is the photograph that settled three things. The white circle is a *disc standing proud of the wall*, not a recess — it casts its own shadow and is lit from a cove behind its rim. The gold base disc cantilevers out from it as a shelf, so the whole assembly projects a long way into the room; that projection, not the diameter, is the dimension the plan has to hold. And the image reads as floating in an unbroken white field — which is why the cabinets that used to flank it have been deleted. Image supplied by the client.

Image and base — the numbers the design is built on

Item	Dimension	Consequence for the room
Image — front width	1.54 m	Fits inside a Ø2.50 m circle with 0.48 m of clear halo on each side.
Image — height	1.54 m
Image — side width (depth)	0.80 m	0.80 m is the figure alone. What matters on plan is the whole assembly — backdrop drum + cantilevered base disc + figure — drawn here at 1.20 m. Confirm with the supplier.
Image — weight	50 kg	112 kg total, cantilevered off the wall at +1.425 m. This needs a steel bracket bolted into RC or into a purpose-built structural backing — not blockwork and not a stud partition. It has to be decided at structure stage, not at fit-out.
Base disc (แผ่นฌาน) — Ø / thickness	1.64 m / 0.25 m
Base disc — weight	62 kg
Backdrop disc	Ø 2.50 m	Set out with 0.675 m below the base disc and 1.825 m above it — the Ibaraki proportion, reproduced exactly. The numbers close: 0.25 + 1.54 = 1.79 against 1.825 available, leaving 35 mm over the head. Proud of the wall, not recessed.

Ibaraki compared with this design

Item	Wat Phra Dhammakaya Ibaraki	Vimutti Valley
Room width	12.35 m	11.00 m
Clear ceiling	3.60 m	4.20 m — raised to take the drop-down screen
Stage height	0.46 m	0.45 m — same
Stage depth	shallow, about 1.30 m	3.10 m — ours must seat a row of nine with a walkway behind
Stage access	side stairs at both ends, climbing inward	adopted — side stairs at both ends, entered from the side aisles
Stage front	plain flush board, nothing projecting	adopted — one flush plane, floor to +0.85
Buddha image	Ø2.50 m backlit disc proud of the wall, image cantilevered on its base disc	adopted, set out to the same 675 / 1825 proportion, with a 1.30 m north band to contain the projection
Cabinets beside the image	none — unbroken white field	adopted — the two tall cabinets are deleted; storage moves into the chest under the stage
Modesty screen in front of the monks	none	added at the client's request: podium band, top +0.85 m
Projection	ceiling projector + side-wall TVs, no drop-down screen	motorised drop-down screen on the centre-line
External doors	doors at both front corners, opening onto the stairs	one door only, on the south centre-line — mosquitoes and acoustics

Three further Ibaraki sheets were supplied — Elevation A (1:50), Planning Detail (1:50) and the Ø2500 circle setting-out sheet. Their content is carried into the elevation and sections above. Drop the files into meditation_hall_assets/ and they will be embedded here as Figs. 3–5.