Development
Creating Shambhala at the Land Centre of the Kingdom
The Vision
Dorje Denma Ling has the energetic qualities of space, gentleness and beauty that nurture and support the mind, body and heart. We serve as a local centre for the residents of the area, a regional centre for the Atlantic Provinces and, as an international centre, we welcome practitioners from around the world.
When you come here you experience the elemental nature of the environment itself: the spacious sky, surrounding forests, rolling rugged landscape and the distant horizon of the Northumberland Straight and Prince Edward Island. The simple, open and direct quality of the land naturally supports meditation practice and the personal life journey.
The Plan
Dorje Denma Ling is entering a new and exciting phase of development. Based upon Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche’s wish to develop Dorje Denma Ling further as the rural centre that complements the urban capital of Shambhala in Halifax, Dorje Denma Ling’s Executive Director and Governing Council endorsed a new design concept in June 2010. This design concept was created by Gina Stick, who brings together the wisdom of sacred architecture and feng shui with Shambhala principles to create a strong and beautiful container embued with the teachings and environment of our lineage. The design concept has been endorsed by Eva Wong and the Sakyong’s Advisory Panel on Shambhala Environments.
This new plan creates 1) a strong container to anchor and sustain the mind transmission of the Shambhala lineage, 2) a primary teaching seat for the Sakyong, and 3) a stable and sustainable Dorje Denma Ling mandala.
Sustainability will be incorporated into all new buildings in an architecturally integrated fashion, including geothermal heating systems, active solar hot water systems, photovoltaic panels for lighting, and passive solar throughout (high insulation values in the exterior walls / floor / roof, high efficiency windows, etc.). We are also exploring the application of windmills for electrical generation.
The first project (“Phase 1”) is to construct two residential buildings in front of Gyatso Lodge, which can in the future be joined to the Lodge to make one U-shaped building with a courtyard. One of these buildings will be used as housing for the Dorje Denma Ling staff until further accommodations can be built for them. This project will more than double our existing Lodge accommodations, adding over 30 beds for visiting program participants and retreatants.
Research, planning and design are underway this fall and winter, with the view to breaking ground in the spring of 2012 and completing the project in the fall.
Opinion of Probable Project Costs for “Phase 1”
Construction Cost (each building 2,800 building gross square feet @ $200/bgsf)
$1,120,000
Architects / Engineer Fees
$80,000
Site Development
$100,000
Furnishings and Equipment
$70,000
Total Estimated Project Cost
$1,370,000
images by Gina Stick
