Peace and Meditation Garden

A former girls' school, the mother house is now home to approximately 80 retired School Sisters of Notre Dame. A 1920's four-storey building was demolished. The technical challenge was to create a garden over the rubble of a demolished building. The design challenge was to create a space to accommodate the needs of individuals and small groups for privacy, meditation and prayer, while accommodating the occasional larger gathering.

The garden included a series of small spaces connected by looping paths, which serve residents with varying levels of physical and cognitive ability. The first path allows the most frail members the choice of independent access to the garden. Unobtrusive fencing establishes a secure framework for garden users. Overhead elements such as trees and an overhead trellis reduce the scale of the large building and provide shade. Various garden features were incorporated to maximize views from upper storey rooms to the Peace & Meditation Garden and natural landscape beyond.