Ora et labora: Marcelo Cox links monastic architecture to modern housing
Chilean architect Marcelo Cox's essay 'Ora et labora. La invención de la intimidad' (Puente Editores, 139 pp, €11.90) traces how monastic spatial organization influenced modern domestic architecture and the concept of privacy. Drawing on Hannah Arendt's inversion of contemplative versus active life, Cox argues that despite the modern privileging of action, monastic architecture—from eremitic pillars to communal dormitories and individual cells—shaped secular housing. He connects the Benedictine and Cistercian communal dormitories to the later separation of work and home during industrialization, and sees echoes in Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation and Sejima's housing for Japanese employees. The essay highlights the Carthusian and Camaldolese orders' emphasis on solitude, and the poignant example of the Poor Clares of Pedralbes, who built makeshift day cells within their monastery to achieve privacy despite collective sleeping quarters. Pope Martin V formally allowed individual cells in the 15th century. Cox posits that private space is not mere individualism but a prerequisite for genuine public life.
Key facts
- Marcelo Cox is a Chilean architect who worked in Chile and Barcelona.
- The essay is published by Puente Editores.
- The book has 139 pages and costs €11.90.
- Cox uses Hannah Arendt's idea that modernity inverted the hierarchy of contemplative over active life.
- He links monastic architecture to modern housing, focusing on work organization, routine, and the public-private divide.
- Early eremites like Simeon the Stylite used columns for asceticism, which Cox connects to later cloisters.
- The Benedictine order emphasized reading alongside prayer and work.
- The Council of Toledo in the 7th century shifted from eremitism to cenobitism.
- Carthusians and Camaldolenses prioritized solitude; Pope Martin V allowed individual cells in the 15th century.
- The Poor Clares of Pedralbes built day cells in interstices of their monastery for privacy.
- Cox references Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation and Sejima's housing for Japanese employees.
- The book argues that private space is necessary for constructing a truly public life.
Entities
Artists
- Marcelo Cox
- Hannah Arendt
- Simeon the Stylite
- Le Corbusier
- Sejima
- Pope Martin V
Institutions
- Puente Editores
- Benedictine order
- Cistercian order
- Carthusian order
- Camaldolese order
- Poor Clares of Pedralbes
Locations
- Chile
- Barcelona
- Pedralbes
- Spain