Alongside the repeating daily cycle of services and private prayer, the monastic day stipulates time dedicated to manual work.
At Nový Dvůr designed by John Pawson, this manual work includes the manufacture of hand cream and the packaging of mustard, the sale of which should generate sufficient income to cover the monastery’s day-to-day running costs. The workshops designed to house these small-scale industrial activities are sited to allow the building to become a natural extension of the existing patterns of circulation. Although substantial in plan, the new architecture sits low in the falling landscape, minimising its visual impact on the site as a whole. The language of the elevations draws on the vocabulary developed for the wide Nový project, enriched with new elements of pattern and texture.
