The Convent of Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs in Timor-Leste

SPACE June 2025 (No. 691)​​

A Tropical Alpine City with No Time Difference: Aileu, Timor-Leste

If one were to trace a line southward from Korea (36° N, 127.7° E), one would arrive near the equator at Timor-Leste (9° S, 126° E), the only country in Asia located in the southern hemisphere. Owing to this near alignment of longitude, Korea and Timor-Leste share the same time zone, despite being hemispheres apart. Since 2017, the Sisters of the Blessed Korean Martyrs have been caring for local children and offering educational support to young people in Aileu, a mountain town roughly an hour southwest of the capital. Our involvement began when we were invited to design a convent with a chapel and dormitory for girls to serve the sisters dispatched to this remote region.

A Convent Within Light, Wind, and Trees: Taking Comfort in Rain and Heat

To those accustomed to the urban climates of the Northern Hemisphere, the most unfamiliar aspect of Aileu was its weather. Timor-Leste, situated in the tropics, experiences a pronounced alternation between its wet season (from December to April) and dry season (from May to November), marked by high temperatures and humidity. Aileu, at over 1,000 metres above sea level, required a means of enduring the heat and humidity during the monsoon as well as the intensity of the dry season sun. With electrical and water infrastructure still unreliable in the region, we chose to eschew mechanical systems and instead return to architectural fundamentals, focusing on the relationships between light, air, and space. The sun’s path, which varies significantly over the year, offered a new framework for understanding light. Unlike in Korea, where the sun always traverses the southern sky, Timor-Leste’s position near the equator means the sun rises and sets from the northeast to northwest in the dry season, and from the southeast to southwest in the wet season. After simulating the solar trajectory throughout the year, we oriented the chapel’s façade southeastward and introduced clerestory windows. This design allows the early morning light of the wet season (beginning in December) to pen...