The Center of Gravity Sutra Hall

The Sutra Hall (also called the “Foundation Hall”) is the centerpiece of the Bodhi Manda Zen Center and the place where the monastic world and the lay world meet.  It is used for Sutra chanting and Teisho (Dharma talks) and provides a place for Buddhist ceremonies as well as marriages, funerals, and memorial services.  The hall also serves as a silent space where practitioners and visitors can meditate and contemplate indoors. It was built to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Center’s founding.

The Center of Gravity Foundation Sutra hall is a fusion of ancient traditions of Japanese Zen Buddhist architecture with the context of northern New Mexico's architecture.  To balance these seemingly opposite ideas, the architects use the enclosing walls symbolically: one wall is light and the other is heavy. The roof projects up beyond the walls to protect them from the elements and shade the interior from the summer sun.

Beyond the symbolic opposites of the enclosing walls, they also serve environmental functions: the rammed earth walls act as thermal composites, keeping unwanted summer heat out during the day and re-radiating at night, while the lighter walls slide open to allow cross breezes on warm days. Inside the Hall, the effect is one of an embracing feeling accompanied by the warm glow of the sun, an awareness of the outside world beyond the calm interior.

Within the Hall interior, with its traditional tatami mats, the design exhibits a balanced mixture of simple and complex in its materiality, structure, and design. From the subtle interplay of different flooring materials and the play of light through the timber slats onto the tatami, to the lively shape of the roof and its structure, the Foundation Hall is a deceptively simple design that is a fitting home for a Buddhist practice in the mountains of New Mexico.

In 2004, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded Predock Frane Architects the Honor Award for Outstanding Architecture for their design of the Center of Gravity Foundation Hall.