What's Going to happen?

• Solar Thermal heating system w/six new pannels
  
• Replacement of the two-story roof with addition of dormer and windows for passive solar gain
• Remodeling of office space

Creating sacred architecture 

 Like the skylight enclosure in the studio lobby, which is designed according to the principles of sacred geometry, the new additions to the Solstice Center will  be built, acording to a similar aesthetic where possible, creating a sense of harmony and well-being in those that enter the space.

Peter MacGill's description of the Skylight Enclosure 

Click here to see a video of the skylight construction!

    The owner of the Solstice Center in Boulder, Colorado approached me to design and construct renovations. The Center leases space to groups giving workshops with a spiritual, ecological or creative focus. Participants enter the building through a dark, narrow hallway that opens to a slightly larger space, with the door to a large meeting space on either side of this antechamber. The form of the antechamber fit the physical function of an entryway, but not the spiritual or aesthetic function of a gateway into the spiritual knowledge and transformation that was to take place in the adjoining rooms.

 We agreed that this waiting room would feel more open and  “enlightened” with the addition of skylights. I also knew that the builders of ancient cathedrals worked with more than windows to enhance their space.  The mathematics of the proportions of windows, walls, and ceilings also mattered greatly in the atmosphere that was created. We decided to use sacred geometry so that the measurements of the ceiling were in phi ratio to the measurements of the skylight box.  The phi ratio is a proportion found in virtually all living creatures, plant and animal, on earth. We choose the size of Velux skylights so that they would fit into this proportion.
    

I knocked out the low ceiling of the room, installed the skylights in a roof box three feet above it, and sloped the new upper walls from the skylight box down to the upper edge of the walls where the ceiling used to be.

A mirror-backed, underlite display cabinet was added, using sacred geometry for its proportions.

Unfortunately, no photo can capture the difference in the feel of the entryway. Sunlight coming through the windows energizes those standing or sitting below in a balanced, grounding, yet uplighting sense of liveliness and well-being.  The engineering of this old building prevented the roof rafters from be taken out but peering between them to the sky seems to add a sense of depth and mystery. The skylights themselves are beautiful. People love the feel of the space now, and linger there.