This project proposes a mindfulness retreat where humans, animals, and the environment coexist through everyday acts and shared encounters. Rooted in the Buddhist concept of interbeing, the design translates coexistence into spatial organization and lived experience. Adjacent to Blue Cliff Monastery, the master plan is structured along a central axis, placing dining and living at opposite ends to encourage daily engagement across the entire site. Between these anchors, welcoming, learning, meditating, and play programs unfold as a sequence of courtyards, connected by indoor, semi-open, and outdoor corridors. These spaces are not only for movement, but for encounter.
At the architectural scale, this logic continues. The dining courtyard supports outdoor eating, while the living courtyard forms a quiet, hill-like landscape. These two courtyards are connected at ground level through self-sufficient farming, where food, ecology, and daily life intersect.
