located south of moab, utah on an extrodinarily flat site within walking distance of the glorious canyonlands national park is the site of the proposed vas rehabilitation center for consumption addiction. this studio project uses the principles of vas, voluntary architectural simplicity, to develop sublime and transcendental architecture to enhance the effective and affective qualities of the rehabilitation center. the center will be run as a trappist monastery, a religious order that follows the principles of thomas merton and have a strong traditions of work, prayer, and study. the large thirty thousand foot program includes housing for permanent staff and clients, work and study spaces, and communal and personal prayer spaces.

the basic principle of the project is to reorient guests with their position in the world. having been consumed by possessions and the chaos of everyday life, the design must eliminate the unnecessary and realign visitors with their basic sense of time and pace. the primary design move to accomplish this objective was to invert the building mass, by placing the building underground guests will have their typical experience of the world inverted. soft undulating ramps provide transportation through out the complex. these ramps slowly move users up and down the horizon, realigning them with a basic element of our existence on this earth. light is let into interior spaces by deconstructing the building mass and creating clerestories and ribbon windows.