The Drift - Meditation Mine Competition, Ireland

Although industrialization was originally started with the purpose of facilitating human life, it is now often the cause of stress and anxiety in the modern world. To provide an escape from the fast-paced and anxious lifestyle of urban life, a meditation retreat is designed at a site which contains the ruins of one of the first mines in Ireland.

Therefore, in a poetic and cyclical way, the escape from urbanization is also found in its beginnings.

The Drift is designed for the modern wanderer seeking meaningful, self-reflective, and insightful experiences away from civilization. Previously referring to a miner digging tunnels and mine shafts, today a drifter is any person who wanders and seeks exploration, inwards or out. As such, The Drift becomes a meeting point for people of different backgrounds, and an intersection of the historic past, present and future. The retreat is designed to encourage a shift in mindset through paths responding to the natural changes in topography. This shift is achieved through two contrasting experiences: on one end by burrowing up the hill into darkness and contemplating on the reality of industrialization, and on the other by drifting down the hill to a destination that looks upon water and the untouched land. It provides a holistic approach into meditation that aims to tune the body and mind into a meditative journey embedded in the site.