The Church Dives in Misericordia, can be found in the area of Tor Tre
Teste a Roma, in the southern outskirts. I went one day when the sun was
blue and the winter light blended with the walls, they are also white,
creating an atmosphere of absolute abstraction and total annulment of the
awareness of the land.
The most striking thing, as soon as you enter, is the light. Since always,
in architecture, especially in religious themes, light is used as an
element to catalyst on the Divine figure. I am unable to forget the light
that filters in the Borromini buildings, those rays of sunlight that
intersect with the raw material of the walls. Or the strip of material
illuminated in the universal dark of Veermer.
Here, in this urban metropolis, light is the
fundamental element enclosed between the veils blown by the wind of the
spirituality and the wings of the building, where the parish services are
celebrated both spiritual and earthly. Much of the merit of the Vicariate
of Rome is to have stipulated an international contest (1996) for the Tor
Tre Teste area the winner was Richard Meier an American architect, not
catholic. It is important to precise this fact because it is one of the
strengths of the project. Build a parish edifice according to the dictation
of the Concilio Vatican II, bearing in mind a religious concept of universal
spirituality and Trans-religious projected towards humanity.
It is a building where the catholic religion is professed, and I, catholic,
blend with the light that penetrates through the veils and the cracks behind
Christ, suspended, address my spirit to the divine entity. At the same time,
I believe that any human being of any religion can find his God. I felt Islam
near and for a few seconds I contemplated that the fissure was turned towards
'Mecca' and I had the sensation of being in the painting, under the wall, with
the white veils in front of me and that the light, that enters your eyes,
looking upwards and imaging that in another life this is a Moschea from where
Maometto rose to Heaven.
This building is not only of particular interest from an ideological
and expressive point of view but also from a technological
point of view representing a significant challenge achieved.
The data given by the Society Italcementi, committed as main
sponsor is the following;
- 2600 tons of inert obtained from the grounding of white
marble from Carrara;
- 600 tons of white cement TX Millennium (additive with titanium
dioxide that make the cement surfaces self-cleanable under
the effect of light. - patent Italcementi);
- 500 tons of malte special;
- 8 kilometres of steel cable of postensione;
- 7.5 kilometres of steel bars.
- 300 project tables for the structural part.
The project of Meier and Ove Arup, his organizer, foresaw
the construction of the veils by means of a steel structure,
covered with plastered panels. The idea of realizing them
with monolithic cones prefabricated by engineer Antonio Michetti,
structural consultant of the Vicariate, professor at the Faculty
of Architecture in Rome, who in agreement with the projectors,
proposed the structural variation. The structure originally
scheduled would have been subject to considerable strain reducing,
therefore, the resistance of wear and tear in time
The building constitutes one of the most interesting architectonic
realizations in Rome.
