For the first time in Brandenburg since the Middle Ages, a new Cistercian monastery is taking shape in a secluded forest near the village of Treppeln, spiritually remediating a former Stasi site. This international collaboration – between Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Dogma and MAIO - asks “what should a 21st-Century monastery be?” In studying the unique history of Cistercian architecture, the international team in close collaboration distilled guiding principles. These manifest in such decisions as the strict brick materiality, a specially devised ad quadratum proportional system, and a careful study of the practical and symbolic configuration of the compound. Respecting the stabilitas loci of the monastic community, one recognizes the monastery as the domestic space par excellence.
