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There is nothing new in the Roman Catholic Church in Italy commissioning a radically Modern design for a new church: The country is littered with such efforts, which, though architecturally modest, are evidence of postwar Catholicism's determination to stake a place in the contemporary world. Critics of the church designed by Richard Meier, FAIA, which opened last October in a suburb of Rome, have complained that it lacks many traditional attributes of a church--a pulpit, for example, or an altar rail, or any spatial distinction between nave and sanctuary. You might even say it makes little reference to traditional cruciform or basilica models. Yet in this abandonment of many hundreds of years of architectural prototypes, Meier is treading in the footsteps of lesser-known postwar Italian architects.
The novelty in this case--and the source of the project's triumph--is that the church intentionally commissioned a Modern design from a Modern master. When the list of architects invited to compete to create a church for the soulless outer Roman suburb of Tor Tre Teste was announced, the ambition was clear: Besides Meier, such top Modern architects as Tadao Ando, Gunter Behnisch, Santiago Calatrava, Peter Eisenman, and Frank Gehry were being considered. That ambition was in evidence again when Meier's design was selected and the architect was instructed to carry it through exactly as presented in the competition proposal. As Meier remarked, "An architect cannot ask for more support than that." Five years in construction, the new Dio Padre in Misericordioso (also called Dives in Misericordia) Church was inaugurated in October 2003. For the wait, the Diocese of Rome has got itself a stunning work, with a form of heroic simplicity that succeeds in harmonizing a number of disparate attributes and requirements.
With its three parallel curving walls constructed from 346 off-white blocks of posttensioned, precast concrete, which rise from 57 to 88 feet above the nave, the church is a dramatic and defining presence amid the suburb's large, nondescript apartment buildings. Yet its scale is so finely considered that it appears neither arrogantly grandiose nor sadly subservient to its surroundings.
Likewise, it is an awe-inspiring building to approach, yet the interior, flooded by top light from the enormous sloping skylights, is not dauntingly huge. At a mass...