Consecration of the Monatery of Novy Dvur
John Pawson
15 September 2004
It seems a very long time ago now that I received word that monks from
the Cistercian order wished to commission me to design a new monastery
for them in Bohemia. It is five years since I first travelled to Novy
Dvur and walked the site, talking over the possibilities with Dom
Patrick. At that point, cows roamed the courtyard, trees grew through
roofs and what remained of the original structures was quietly slipping
towards irretrievable dereliction. If the power and beauty of the place
was immediately apparent, so was the immensity of the task ahead. Of
course there was never any question of not doing it: who would turn
down the project of a lifetime?
Over the intervening years much has happened. It has proved to be a
project both like every other and yet profoundly unlike. There have
been many trips, many more telephone calls and faxes, sketches, plans,
models and slowly, slowly a piece of architecture, the main phase of
which is now nearing completion.
Today we are here to celebrate the consecration of the monks’ church.
We are also here to celebrate teamwork, which lies at the heart of any
successful architectural endeavour. In my office, I should like to pay
particular tribute to the contributions of Pierre Saalburg and Vishwa
Kaushal. I should also mention Stephane Orsolini, who was involved in
the project’s crucial early phases and who accompanied me on that first
site visit in the autumn of 1999.The success of the work has also depended heavily on the quality of
understanding which has developed between my office and that of Jan
Soukup and his dedicated team here in Bohemia – particularly Antonin
Svehla, Ondrej Smetana and David Cigler.
Of course in many ways a project is only ever as good as the client and
the monks have been rare clients indeed. The force of their vision and
determination is reflected in the very existence of this entirely new
community in rural Bohemia, quite apart from the fact that this new
community now also has a new monastery.
It will be a while before I can look back on the work of the past years
with the benefit of hindsight and appreciate the impact this
extraordinary project has had on me. That collaboration with the monks
has brought creative and spiritual enrichment is without question. It
has also provided me with a very particular archive of memories - of
the small deputation of monks who visited my own house in London and
worried that my work might be a little austere for them, of my first
experience of clients praying before a presentation and of the time
when I was away on site for my wife’s birthday and the monks sang
‘happy birthday’ to her via the telephone. In a different category
altogether is my memory of the comfort and support I was offered by the
community in the difficult days and weeks which followed a car-crash in
rural India, when a fellow passenger – a man who was both a client and
a friend – was killed.
The work of getting things right has been lengthy and challenging and
is by no means over yet, but for an architect it has represented an
almost unparalleled opportunity to test ideas and push possibilities:
to create something which is both new, but also true in its essence to
Cistercian ideals of what a monastery should be like. I am immensely
grateful to the monks for offering me this opportunity and profoundly
proud to have played a part in the realisation of their dream.