Three curved white concrete sails rise high between the buildings and tilled fields. This is what the congregation of the Dives in Misericordia church will see. Completed at last, it is to be inaugurated on Sunday in the Roman district of Tor Tre Teste (15 thousand souls on the outskirts of the city).
Work has taken 5 years to complete: the first stone was laid in 1998 and the competition – which also saw the participation of Tadao Ando, Günter Behnisch, Santiago Calatrava, Peter Eisenman and Frank Gehry – dates from three years earlier.
Proud to be the first Jewish architect ever to design a place of worship for the Holy Church of Rome, Richard Meier was inspired by the finest models: Alvar Aalto’s churches in Finland and Le Corbusier’s chapel at Ronchamp.
26.10.2003 Inaugurazione della Chiesa Dives in Misericordia via Francesco Tovaglieri (angolo piazza Cevasco), Tor Tre Teste, Roma http://www.richardmeier.com
The proportional structure of entire complex is predicated on a series of displaced squares and four circles. Three circles of equal radius generate the profiles of the three shells that, together with the spine-wall, make up the body of the nave. Photo Carlo Carino for Italcementi
