Description

The church is situated in a “dormitory satellite” on the “periphery of the periphery” of Milan; according to the architect, situations like these demand strong signals. In Cesano Boscone, however, a different solution was chosen. The building complex attempts to extend and interlock with the existing disparate context, picking up the lines of buildings and areas to the east, and setting the entire complex on an elevated platform that clearly separates it from the main roads and side roads to the west and south.

Including the spaces for the church and the parish centre, the entire building has a length of 108 metres and a breadth of 42 metres at the front and 22 metres at the rear. The overall height of the building is 14 metres, measured from street level. The entrance courtyard lies at the corner of the complex. Its trapezoid form is defined by the chapel to the left, the campanile to the right, the concrete frontage of the church up ahead as well as two rows of benches and the priest’s residence. The orientation of the chapel and campanile follows that of the road, the paving of the courtyard by contrast the axis of the church, resulting in a Piazetta reminiscent of Camillo Sitte’s ideals.

A corridor, open to the courtyard, leads from the chapel and underneath the projecting roof of the church. The schematic arrangement of the church is that of a hall church turned crossways: to the east a 3.4 metre high vestibule with spaces for the font and confession, in the centre a 7.9 metre high main hall with pews arranged in three blocks around the island with the altar and ambo. The altar table is a replica of an elliptical table designed in the thirties by Piero Bottoni for the Villa Muggia. To the west four shaft-like cavities behind glass panes appear like a row of apses. With the exception of these light-filled boxes, north light falls from the side from the garden court, then through a full-height glass panel, and on the other side from the south through 105 small holes in the concrete facing of the church frontage and through a broad window high up in the wall. In addition, light streams in from above onto the east wall of the vestibule and the east and west walls of the main church hall.

Whilst light streams in from all around, the surroundings remain concealed from view: the periphery would distract from the Eucharistic mass. The castello-like external appearance of the complex is largely due to the defensive concrete frontage and the three squat towers to the east. Of these, the tower in the south is the campanile, the tower in the centre is the baptistry and the tower to the north facilitates access to the building. The use of materials reflects the contextualism outside and functionalism inside: red brick outside, predominantly grey concrete inside. However, one’s awareness of contextualism and functionalism vanishes upon entering the strongly introverted space of the church, expressed through the building’s numerous sizeable cavities and recesses.

Arosio, Giuseppe: Chiese nuove verso il terzo millennio. Diocesi di Milano 1985-2000, Milan 2000, pp. 122- | Casabella, no. 572/1990, p. 25 and no. 687/2001, pp. 66- | Chiesa Oggi, no. 2/1992, pp. 75- and no. 49/2001, pp. 46- and no. 66/67/2004, p. 15 | L’Industria delle Costruzioni, no. 360/2001, pp. 40- | Prove d’Architettura, no. 2/1998, pp. 96- | Techniques et Architecture, no. 459/2002, pp. 60-

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Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.