Can a simple box cure attention deficits and modern angst?

"Contemporary life can be a series of mind-numbing distractions,” according to the design team at the Office of Charles F. Bloszies, a national firm.

Their new solution, “Ironically, leads us to a tiny, physical space of tranquility,” say the West Coast-based architects and structures designers.

A shortlisted design in the worldwide competition hosted by Buildner and juried by design leaders from Melbourne to New Delhi to Los Angeles, the team's Tokyo Meditation Module APP is proposed as "one of many modular meditation cabins to be deployed in quiet locations throughout Tokyo."

Archinect's Niall Patrick Walsh covered the competition and some distinctive entries in a previous article.

"Our cabin is a simple box,” says Charles F. Bloszies, FAIA. "Wood and glass panels inside and solar panels on the outside: tile floor, one glass wall, three wood walls, one with shelves, and a wood ceiling.” 

As with Bloszies’s solutions for homelessness — the latest debuted late this spring in Redwood City, California — the cost-efficient prefabrications can easily host building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPVs. “The solar panels are the exterior skin – functional and symbolic. The module is a place to recharge,” he quips. (Click here for information on the Redwood City campus for unhoused individuals.)

Other recent laurels for the Office of Charles F. Bloszies include a ULI Americas Award for Excellence in 2022 for a prior offsite fabricated noncongregate shelter for individuals, couples, and families with children in Mountain View, California, for the clients LifeMoves and Sares Regis. The firm's design for another similar project, Bayview Navigation Center, won the judges’ honor in the 2022 Metal Architecture Design Awards.

As Kevin Fagan wrote last winter in The San Francisco Chronicle about the new campus, “It will be the biggest navigation center in Northern California. Can it end homelessness in this Bay Area county?”

As the team's Tokyo Meditation Module APP demonstrates, these architectural interventions at the very least bring some solace, calm and serenity to the lives of people who truly need those qualities. 

Visit the competition website https://architecturecompetitions.com/tokyocabins/ to see all the winning meditation huts.