Ronchamp Gatehouse and Monastery

A convent for 12 Poor Clare nuns, built into the hillside.The nuns' idea was to live in the place, not to let the hill be abandoned; it had infact turned into a place of architectural pilgrimage, losing the religious function of Le Corbusier's chapel. Without interfering with the chapel, the hill was cut in three parts to place the convent: 12 rooms for the sisters, 12 for guests, an oratory, sewing workshops and common spaces. The rooms look out onto the forest and its silence, interpreting the nuns' need for contemplation and meditation.