Pavilion for Local Farmers

In the summer of 2025, I joined a group of students to construct a rest pavilion for monks tending a cornfield in rural Shanxi Province, China.
The 500-year-old monastery nearby is home to 20 monks—who balance meditation, prayers for the region, and care for the cornfield, a vital part of their community’s life. For them, tending the field under Shanxi’s brutal summer sun (often 40+ Celsius) is grueling; they either walk back to the monastery for lunch or eat in the heat. We hoped the pavilion would be more than shade—it would be a haven for rest, and a quiet space for prayer amid the rustle of corn.
We began by studying the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, built in 1056 during the Liao dynasty—the world’s oldest and tallest surviving all-wooden pagoda. Its octagonal form, rare in Chinese architecture, evolved from star-worship to imperial ritual symbolism and finally to a pinnacle of seismic-resistant timber craft. This cultural and structural heritage inspired our choice of the octagon as the pavilion’s core geometry. Combining traditional joinery with modern structural understanding, we interlocked eight sets of columns and beams so that each piece borrowed strength from the others—no wood wasted, structure as form and form as structure. Finally, we draped the pavilion in a dark “robe,” hoping that anyone resting beneath might feel a breeze of Zen stillness
We used locally sourced wood from nearby hills—easy for the monks to maintain later—and reclaimed planks for seating, cutting costs and reducing waste.