Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Pagoda

As a last resting place for the remains for members of the Auckland Fo Guang Shan Buddhist community, the new pagoda represents a sculptural and contemplative place in which the constant change of water and the permanence of stone co-exist. 

In response to the extremely formal symmetry of the existing temple complex, the new pagoda is conceptually an abstracted landscape element rather than a building. The seven level pagoda is clad in travertine marble with precisely cut apertures to allow light access into what is fundamentally conceived as a singular stone block placed over a large body of water. Some areas of stone cladding are carved with images of Buddha, creating a tension between the ethereality of the image etched into the cladding while retaining the sense of overall massiveness and solidity. 

The building is entered by descending beneath the water surface by ramp, flanked on both sides by sheer waterfalls. Visitors arrive in a partially covered courtyard (which emphasises the ‘removal’ of this lower level from worldly concerns) leading to the chapel space before ascending the tower form; the allusion here is toward “transformation” and “leaving the world” through the visual and acoustic experience of water. 

Beyond the chapel space, galleries of memorial plaques lead to a further courtyard, open to the sky and containing a single tree, for meditation and contemplation. 

The palette for the project is deliberately austere; stone and in-situ concrete are the only visible external materials. The water and carefully considered planting provide balance to this otherwise tough approach.