Above: The Shambhala Lodge was the first of the housing buildings constructed on the property now known as Drala Mountain Center.
A shining example of a contemplative space Caddis team members have helped to design is a famed meditation center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. Between 1998 – 2004 Bryan Bowen and Kelly Siu – now both architects at Caddis Collaborative – were working at J Logan Architects, which was hired to do work at Rocky Mountain Shambhala Center. The facility was later renamed Shambhala Mountain Center and is now called Drala Mountain Center.
When Bryan and Kelly began their work, the Center had finished its first new buildings, primarily its beautiful Sacred Studies Hall, designed by community member and architect Richard Rice. On the heels of that success, the Center was trying to grow its programs so that it could serve more people. Bryan and Kelly designed the first housing building for participants, now known as the Shambhala Lodge. The lodge features a beautiful fireplace lounge and an outdoor patio.
While they were designing Shambhala Lodge, the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya was also being designed and built. Though Bryan and Kelly weren’t involved with that effort, it was a powerful experience to be working at Shambhala while such a spiritually significant project was underway.
Bryan and Kelly also designed parts of the Center’s Maitri Village, a secluded and quiet meeting space just a 12-minute walk away from the main campus. Bryan and Kelly designed a set of three cabins, each featuring five rooms with two twin beds per room. They also worked on the Maitri Village Conference Center, which includes a meeting space with fireplace and a dining space.
As they created spaces for the Center, Bryan and Kelly had several key priorities: landscape-appropriate design, strong energy goals, fire-resistant choices, and the use of feng shui principles, principles they used as they worked with Hank Reisen and Scheri Fultineer of Reisen Design Associates to design the site.
The result is a set of buildings that fit into an Asian-inspired natural landscape – in Colorado. The landscape is beautiful, with exposed, deconstructing granite boulders. Wonderful landforms like Marpa Point and Red Feather Peak served as touchstones for the design process, and Bryan and Kelly worked with natural flows of water and resources on the site.
