In 1991, ten young men left what was then Czechoslovakia to follow their religious convictions and enter the Cistercian Abbey of Sept-Fons in Burgundy. By the end of the 90s, the number of monks there had increased to 75, which allowed a new Cistercian monastery to be founded in Novy Dvur, west of Prague, and the return of the Czech monks to their home. The new complex was to be erected on a 250-acre estate with dilapidated buildings that had been unoccupied for more than 40 years. The assignment comprised the construction of a church, a cloister, an infirmary, a scriptorium, chapter house, kitchen and refectory, as well as classrooms and monks’ cells. In seeking a suitable architect, the abbot of Sept-Fons came across John Pawson’s book “Minimum”, in which he found pictures of a scheme for a Calvin Klein boutique in New York. In the precise architectural language of this project, he saw a reflection of the spirit of the Cistercian order, and Pawson was commissioned to design the new monastery.