One of the things I want to create for my gradually-growing list of modern city buildings is a meditation center of some sort. In the real world it would probably be a Buddhist temple or center, but I don't know enough to do that 'right' and I doubt the game would allow for doing it right any more than you can really do religious buildings from any of the Abrahamic faiths "right" either, so I'm really just looking to kind of capture that spirit in the building. There's quite a few different game elements that seem to fit together as a hodge-podge of east-Asian spirituality, if not a proper religious structure. This kind of prompts a couple questions though, especially knowing that I'll probably want to upload this once it's finished!

What elements would you want to see included? Plenty of BV objects like the zen garden or the Torii gate or the tea ceremony table seem like obvious things to make space for, but are there things that you'd want to see in a structure like this that might be a little less obvious?

What kind of architecture do you think would make sense for this? (Example suggestions for me to take a look at are absolutely welcome!) I'm not imagining an ancient temple or anything- the building would be MAYBE 100 years old at the most, so I'm not going for really historic architecture, but at the same time I don't want it to just be a plain boring urban building with no character to define its purpose from the outside.

Something with water? Maybe a courtyard garden with the Koi pond in it and mats and pillows to relax on around it? I thought of the cascading fountain, but that might invite soap-suds pranksters.

Open area (outside or indoors?) for sims to do yoga. Maybe tatami mats or other suitable surface?

Candles definitely, and incense if you can find good CC for it.

Here is a picture of a Zen meditation center near where I live if that helps give you some ideas. There weren't any interior pictures, but I would expect lots of windows, wood or bamboo floors, maybe some screens, mats for sitting on. Keep it simple.

Water an absolute must for me, and greenery. A place isn't calming and meditative unless there's flowing water and deep green plants.

OK, at the moment this is just a shell I put together today, no interiors except the beginnings of a tea shop on the back (this building is going to go in the middle of 3-tile-wide block so both the 'front' and 'back' will open onto a street)

I like it, but at the same time the architecture has gone too far in the direction of the Takemizu Village east-Asian aesthetic (you may see some similarity to the real life Jing'an Temple in Shanghai if you're familiar with it, since I used that as a reference image), and I'm trying to think what ways would work best to tone it down some so that it'll still be distinctive but not quite so out-of-place. I also am not satisfied with how little greenery there is- it's going in the middle of a very urban neighborhood, so it's not going to be open woodland or anything, but just having the two giant bonsai trees in the courtyard branching out over the zen garden doesn't seem like enough.

Thoughts?

(1) It looks like the interior courtyard is concrete. I might make that grass or a number of plants and perhaps using stepping stones for walkways.
(2) I can understand making the outside lower levels similar to neighboring businesses, but perhaps change the interior lower levels to something different? More green or more wooden instead of what looks like concrete siding? Perhaps have ivy on the walls. Make the interior seem lime more of a nature refuge from the outside world with plants and a pond?
(3) To me, concrete stairs leading up from the courtyard into a building are too stark for a relaxing meditation area.

The overall lot is huge, but the interior of each room would be cramped! Wouldn't a few large open spaces be more restful and less distracting than several small enclosed ones with constant traffic jams going on?

Don't forget to make food available.

I like the architecture.

I also agree with Penni - a smaller number of bigger rooms just works better for playing; traffic jams are annoying. Food essential too - also annoying if you have to send your sims back home to eat because they get hungry quickly.

I also vote for a lot greener (and water features) and a lot less concrete.

(Pic attached of South Africans meditating),

Already helpful, thanks! I'm thinking the three structures that make up the back left corner can probably be consolidated into one, and then that'll hopefully make for a single larger space for yoga/tai chi/etc. I'm sure I want to include the zen garden and I think that may be the trickiest part since it's such a large outdoor object, but food can be the Takemizu diner object somewhere pretty easily. Talking about traffic jams and the like though makes me think - what would you expect to be having your Sims DO if they visited a lot like this? Like, what kind of visits would you want to have?

I still want to somehow make the building feel more like it's part of a modern city though, and I'm still stuck there - combining different architectural styles has never been something I've been all that happy with my attempts at!

Its funny that you mention that because we have a Japanese Friendship Garden in our metro area and I feel like the city vibes around kind of kill the vibe when I try and take pictures of the scenery, but hey that's life in the city for ya!

Meditation centers are where you go when you're stressed, anxious, etc. I probably wouldn't build something like this unless I had a specific use for it - like perhaps I was using one sim to focus on exploring the meditation mechanic, learning to float etc., something that there's never time to do at home. So I'd want a place to set the sim learning to meditate down, and enough other things on the lot that I have something to watch while they're doing it, because face it, watching a sim meditate is not the most exciting thing.

So people are going to be meeting and socializing and using the fun things on the lot and hopefully doing tai chi (I have yet to see a sim in my game doing tai chi - nobody ever, ever, ever does it for my sims to learn it when I go to Takemizu, no matter where I take them) and all the usual things sims do. So I'd want nice clear sight lines so I could watch interpersonal developments. Are there any group activities connected with meditation in the game, however loosely? There should be thematically appropriate art on the walls and studded around the zen garden, I think. Sims can spend quite a lot of time viewing art, and do it socially, too.

Sims love viewing art, not only paintings, but statues too.






The Zen Garden is a nice object, at least one knowledge sim will love to groom it. And a number can meditate at the same time.

I will add the tea table too. Personally, I think that will be more than enough, and I like the food stand idea.

Teaching Tai Chi - I always have a couple of Sims who succeeded learning it in the Far East, and they can teach the others, so as long as there is a bit of space for it. If no Tai Chi teacher turns up, they can always play Kicky Bag of something

It will be a great place for Knowledge Sims who can teach skills to others. Sims who have learned the Legend in the Far East can also tell it to other Sims right here.

Sims will also interact in various ways if they are fed and content - they will talk about hobbies, exchange hobby tips, tell each other things, gossip, etc.