Caddis Collaborative continues its work for contemplative centers with its design of a multipurpose building for Dhamma Sela, located near Elbert, Colorado. Also known as the Rocky Mountain Vipassana Center, this facility offers Vipassana meditation training as taught by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin.
Caddis has long been familiar with insight meditation and is delighted to work on another facility in this tradition. Caddis was the architect for Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center (another Vipassana facility that focuses more on nature-based meditation), and several Caddis team members have found the practice of meditation to be beneficial. Vipassana – or “insight meditation” – falls under the Theraveda branch of Buddhism, the oldest branch and closest to the teachings of the Buddha.
Established in 2017, Dhamma Sela is situated in a secluded rural area about 60 miles southeast of Denver. It is surrounded by 156 acres of mature Pondersland pine forests and natural grasslands. Dhamma Sela is part of a network of other Vipassana centers that practitioners travel to.
Dhamma Sela offers one-day and 10-day mostly silent retreats. To support these retreats, Dhamma Sela is now in the process of expanding its facility to add lodging halls and a multipurpose building. Eventually, once the facility is fully built, longer stays will be available. In its first phase, Dhamma Sela will be able to accommodate 30 to 40 students, but as it expands, the plan is for it to provide space for 60 to 80 students.
Aside from one paid staff member who serves as the retreat manager and main cook, Dhamma Sela uses an all-volunteer approach to food production, food service, and teaching. Meditators pay to participate (their payments cover a portion of the infrastructure and buildings), but they also volunteer their efforts while there to keep costs down.
In designing the multipurpose building, several factors were important. First, this building will play a lot of roles until Dhamma Sela can build a separate meditation center. More than half of the multipurpose building’s square footage is taken up by a commercial kitchen and dining hall. Second, males and females are separated at Dhamma Sela and need duplicate areas. Third, there is a need for quiet spaces, and the architectural design must consider that. At the same time, there is no need for daylighting the facility, and in fact, Dhamma Sela does not want to have a lot of changes in the environment. Even seeing a cloud move across the sun may distract meditators. For all of these reasons, Caddis has had to think with the client about how the Dhamma Sela’s teachings will be expressed architecturally.
The multipurpose building will use a pre-engineered metal building that fits the client’s budget and works within the constraints of the client’s fundraising abilities. The goal is to design a building that is flexible and adaptable over a long project life cycle. In this way, the entire Dhamma Sela facility can grow and change in the years ahead.
Currently under design, the multipurpose building is planned for construction in spring 2026. Caddis looks forward to seeing how Dhamma Sela grows and hopes to work with the facility over the years to come.
These renderings show the student entrance to the Dhamma Hall meditation space.
