I know some famous musicians who moved to the forest/sea shore to dissapear. When a musician becomes famous, it becomes hard for them to escape from the media. An oasis, which you speak of sounds fascinating. Here's a dilemma though, if you have a concert there, then the private sanctuary no longer becomes private and now becomes a place where people are aware of the fact that musicians escape to. Nowadays, I see a bunch of architects coming up with mini homes which can be attached to the back of a trailer and then you can haul it to a remote location. Maybe the home/structure which is their sanctuary moves and these concert locations become pop up events and any struggling musician can rent this traveling unit and just take off to a place that they deem to be an appropriate sanctuary at the time? The musicians which I speak about above, live in a region which very few people are aware of. Their concert locations are small random coffee shops or restaurants that aren't far from where they live. There are often jam session nights at the venue(restaurant or coffee shop and the famous drummer/singer, will just randomly show up unannounced and then play for whomever is in that restaurant or cafe at the time. Often times the people in the audience may not even put two and two together and realize who the person is. This way they get to have their creative outlet in front of the audience and they don't have the pressure of the media judging them, etc. I am not sure if that helps but maybe it will make you want to research some small other thing which may lead you down a new path... Good luck!

thank you very much for your reply! I actually never thought about it this way. it seems a bit different from the direction i am trying to pursue but is surely an interesting point of view. 

Making it a travelling unit though, it will lose it's character of being one with the water and will take more of a caravan character. I will have to see if that leads somewhere and of course discuss it with my supervisor.

Thank you very much :)

A boat.

hello! can you elaborate please?

^boats float which is a good characteristic to have when you're trying to make a floating caravan.

yes, i am making floating "boat homes" for musicians. what is your point? :)

no point, just clarifying the properties of boats.

You should build them like this one:

I'd go back and check my assumptions. 

Who are these musicians? Do they not have gigs they need to get to? What kind of instruments do they play? A violinist, whose instrument is extremely sensitive to changes of humidity might not want to live on a houseboat.

Why would the venue only be used a few times a year? Hard for the musicians to make a living, hard to justify the cost of a venue.

Why houseboats? 

Why musicians?

why crowd source your graduate work to strangers on an internet forum?

I was referring to gdub's suggestion of a detachable movable mini home. Something sustainable like a sailboat perhaps.....

I would suggest listening to the music of Paul Horn. Haida is an especially evocative work.

gdub makes great points.

If you want to design an artists' retreat, I don't think a performance venue is an appropriate piece of program. The function of a 'retreat' is isolation. At most there might be a space for performance between the artists, but not for a larger outside audience. It shouldn't be a destination for anyone but the creative.

If you want the project to be about the performance, then you could include housing options for the artist but the primary function of them being there is to perform... so the housing units are for relaxing / recuperating between performances and less about inspiring creativity.

Either is interesting but you need to pick one or the other. They contradict each other when together.