Photo by Matthew Snyder
How do you blend the meditative and rejuvenating aspects of yoga with modern sustainable architecture? Peter Rose + Partners offers up an inspired solution with the newly opened Kripalu Annex, an award-winning housing tower at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.
Photo by Matthew Snyder
Kripalu Annex contains 80 rooms and a large yoga studio set on a tapering axis that is designed to frame views of dense woodlands. Peter Rose chose to create an interplay of modern and natural materials that blends well with the environment. The concrete structure is clad in slatted cypress that offers a streamlined design and places the landscape first. Movable cypress sunscreens temper heat gain, create dynamic shadows on the sunny southern exposure, and provide scents of natural wood in guest rooms. The cypress, while a warm honey color now, will weather to a natural grey and blend with the surrounding woods.
Photo by Matthew Snyder
According to Rose, “Kripalu’s housing needs are modest and straightforward, but the architecture of the Annex, like yoga itself, is full of subtlety and layers of complexity that gently improve the structure’s performance. Light, air, using minimal means to create a calm, healing environment — it’s all about fulfilling these almost intangible requirements.”
