Abbaye Val Notre-Dame / Atelier Pierre Thibault

The entirely new Cistercian Abbey of Saint-Jean-de-Matha was made to express the harmony and simplicity governing the daily lives of the Cistercian monks. The seven daily masses pace their lives. In accordance to their way of life, the abbey’s different spaces seem progressively circling around the cloister and culminate towards the church, the project’s focal point. At the very heart of the building, the cloister preserves a part of the forest and allows the abbey to have a sample of the passing seasons.