ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO

/types Form, function, meaning in

Churches and Modernity

Marco Borsotti

Itineraries through ’s architecture as a description of the city “Itineraries through Milan’s architecture: Modern architecture as a description of the city” is a project of the Order of Architects Planners Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Milan and its Foundation.

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“Churches and Modernity” Marco Borsotti

Edited by: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano on the back cover: L. Figini e G. Pollini, Church of Ss. Giovanni e Paolo, section, 1964-1968, © Archivio CSAC di Parma, Fondo Figini e Pollini

The Foundation of the Order of Architects can be contacted regarding any unidentified rights for visual materials. www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it www.fondazione.ordinearchitetti.mi.it

Churches and Modernity in Milan

Marco Borsotti

The very essence of creating Architecture — the act of translating significance into volume, preserving and communicating meaning with clarity — inseparably links its history to a building typology as special and unique as a church, where precisely sign and meaning take on their absolute values, expressed in representational, symbolic and functional form. Here, the process of imagining space must set itself the objective of consciously interpreting an architectural object in its perceptual dimension, in its ability to provide tangible links between the act of becoming a place and the people who will experience it, uniting form and content with the very principle of its own existence, rendered understandable and available to the individual as well as to the community as a whole. Sacred buildings, therefore, call humanity unto themselves, asking us to receive their form and then summoning us back once again in an attitude of welcome: a house, for God and for humanity. So, since the church-building corresponds to a community’s deep- seeded and intimate needs to identify a sacred place with a sense of transcendence, architecture is presented with the difficult task of becoming both a language for and the interpretation of the values associated with the nature of religious feelings. The highly delicate task that confronted modern architecture, therefore, was not only to interpret a religious building’s civic purpose, but also its ideological role. Modern architecture always faced the reality of its day (along with its attendant changes) at times as a forerunner, at others as a consequence. This is especially true in urban areas, where changes are a faster and more complex phenomenon related to the abandonment and renewal of various models — architectural, social, economic — and modes — of life and relationships, but also, more technically, of construction and

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY technology. The response is an uninterrupted journey in search of fulfilling architecture’s ethical nature, which, especially in the poetic silence of form, summons the ability to evoke transcendental values, where the preeminence of the interior — the final embrace of any personal experience of the transcendental — is a testament to an understanding of the meaning of matter, to the balance between lightness and gravity, and the intimate dialogue with light, an immaterial material able to exalt and define space. After the end of the second World War, Milano had to immediately confront the dramatic urgency of rebuilding a city that had been semi-destroyed. Almost simultaneously, pressures resulting from the phenomenon of intense urbanisation, tied to a very real internal mass migration, also required attention. Furthermore, these reconstruction efforts also included mending the social fabric, focusing on places of collective value, recognisable signs and references where a new common identity could be redrawn. Within this general framework and its subsequent development — and consistent with the logic of difference that all great personalities bring to their missions and common endeavours — one of the traces of greater continuity that characterised the pastoral activities of the Cardinals in the line of leadership of the great Diocese of Milan from the first post-war period till today — Ildefonso Schuster, Giovanni Battista Montini, Giovanni Colombo, Carlo Maria Martini e Dionigi Tettamanzi — is the very careful and attentive focus on the value of architecture as a reference for territorial identification and a tangible sign of the community’s presence. As Cecilia De Carli wrote, Cardinal Schuster is to thank for, “the intuition of structurally tying the construction of the building-church to the growth of the city, connecting it organically — with the invention of the “Office of New Temples” in 1948 — to the city’s Urban Development Plan” (De Carli, 1994). (1) It was an historical period in which the theme of sacred architecture was measuring itself against that which had taken root elsewhere, ever since the twenties and especially abroad, particularly in Switzerland, and Germany. It was a time of deep, new reflections on the meaning of spaces devoted to religion and on what form they should take within the Christian liturgy. This debate centred on the very essence of the meaning expressed by this rite and of the renewed ways in which it related to the faithful, breathing life into the fundamental concept of assembly in the “House of God and of men.” It is a complex path , which in the

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY years of the Second Vatican Council, will lead to a major reform that will pose a difficult challenge to architecture: to demonstrate and exemplify the ability to tune into and adapt to a different idea — more participatory and unifying — about the relationship between space and faith. The process will spur the conception of renewed ecclesial types, in a long and difficult search that continues to this day and that, among other things, immediately re-established the association with the arts. As an historical premise of this process, there was Quickborn, a Catholic Youth Movement in Germany that was formed in 1920 around the intense figures of Romano Guardini, a master of thought and one of the leading spiritual leaders in the century, and Rudolf Schwarz, a young architect capable of making the language of Modern architecture a means of understanding, implementation and renewal of the liturgy itself. The writings of the latter, together with his built works, as well as those of another great architect Emil Steffann, anticipated and gave the force of objective support to the arguments that were addressed and defined by the Second Vatican Council. “It was undoubtedly inevitable that the “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” (1963) and the “Roman Education” that specified its applications (1964), would be reflected in ecclesiastical buildings in a pragmatic way, through a simple functional readjustment of the places of worship. For the most part, the bishops certainly weren’t imagining anything more. While almost unanimously ratifying the theology of the Assembly and the mystery of its unity, they had in mind (…) a monumental and representative image (…), but the theological underpinnings of the Assembly brought with it many changes that were much more decisive. Bringing its considerable weight to bear on the issue, it envisioned a form of worship that would be entirely dedicated to serving the living community (…); hospitality would take precedence over monumentality and the person would come before the object itself ” (2). Postwar Milan, with an abundance of architects who had been pursuing and exploring the language of modern architecture, quickly became a place for experimenting with the design of sacred places that would be adapted to the new times, finding many points of contact between the reforms that will come and the tradition of the Ambrosian rite. In particular, a figure like Gio Ponti — as at ease in the fields of architecture and industrial design as he was working on interiors or on an urban scale — combined the prestige of a

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY confirmed designer with an openly-declared Catholic upbringing that he repeatedly described as being an inspirational muse to his profession, a notion expressed in articles written under the heading, ‘Architecture Religion.’ “There are still no other works from other sources of inspiration that have surpassed the heights and power of those of sacred inspiration (…)” (3). Synthesising such a long and interesting history, so full of great episodes, is obviously not easy. Every architect and designer in this survey possessed an extraordinary design sensitivity, allowing them to successfully address such a difficult architectural and social issue, bringing rich, new elements to the canon. For this itinerary, a few examples have been chosen that are, each and every one, capable of immediately transmitting an understanding of the numerous themes comprising the Modern interpretation of ‘sacred’, with the certainty that the “diversity” that distinguishes each architect can spontaneously speak to us not only about his personal history and his vision of architecture, but also, and above all, about the many facets that combine to make up the Modern idea of a church. Places that have been both fields of experimentation — at times even daring and extreme, like the bareness of the Figini and Pollini’s pared-down, essential language — and consolidated certainties — light as a “construction” material in De Carli’s work; places that have been handed down to us today as the real lessons of architecture and fundamental reference points for all who wish to continue their journey.

MARCO BORSOTTI

(1) C. De Carli, “1945-1963 il tema architettonico della chiesa negli episcopati di Schuster e Montini”, p. 39 in C. De Carli (edited by), Le nuove chiese della Diocesi di Milano 1945-1993, Vita e pensiero, Milano, 1994. (2) F. Debuyst, “Architettura e liturgia. Aspetti del dibattito internazionale”, p. 39, in C. De Carli (edited by), op.cit., Milan, 1994. (3) G. Ponti, Amate l’architettura, Vitali e Ghianda, Genova, 1957, reprint by Cusl, Milan, 2004, p.261 and following pages.

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY THE SPACE IS ILLUMINATED BY RAYS OF SUNLIGHT THAT, TINTED YELLOW BY THE STRIP OF WINDOWS, FILTER IN FROM THE ENTIRE PERIMETER OF THE BUILDING, CREATING A DIFFUSED LIGHT. THE ALTAR AREA IS BEDEWED BY A WHITE BEAM OF LIGHT PENETRATING FROM THE LANTERN THROUGH THE GREAT OCTAGONAL CIBORIUM, SPATIAL FULCRUM THE BUILDING’S INTERIOR. (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO)

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Church of Madonna dei Poveri / 1952-1956 / Luigi Figini,

piazza Madonna dei Poveri 1, Milano

The Madonna dei Poveri church is a represented by then-Cardinal Ildefonso building with an unadorned, somewhat Schuster, to be actively involved in the rough exterior appearance and an essential, reconstruction of the city’s social fabric, brutal interior, leaving the responsibility accompanying it to a widespread presence of emotionally engaging the faithful to the of churches, the hub of community identity. sincerity of the materials and the play of On other, we see the Milanese architects’ natural light. It cannot be fully understood need to propose ecclesial types that could unless placed in its historical context, as finally express the linguistic renewal in part of a number of newly-built places of architecture that had been born with the worship that were faced with the delicate Modern Movement. task of fitting into the post-war landscape In 1995, the installation of the new of a city that not only was being rebuilt, Cardinal, Giovanni Battista Montini, but also had to find an urban balance to produced a renewed impetus for these the expansion of its suburbs, which were issues. Only a year later, Figini and Pollini witnessing a massive influx of migrants. delivered a new church to the working-class In this context, two principle voices came community on the outskirts of Baggio. The to bear on the situation. On the one hand, project presents an industrial aesthetic, there was the desire of the Diocese of Milan, almost a warehouse, softened somewhat by

THE UNADORNED ROUGHNESS OF THE EXTERIOR RECALLS THE KNOWLEDGABLE HANDLING OF LIGHT IN THE CHURCH INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE (PHOTO BY ENRICO TOGNI) INTERIOR (PHOTO BY ENRICO TOGNI)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of Madonna dei Poveri / 1952-1956 / L. Figini, G. Pollini the inclusion of walls in exposed brick (the the congregation (…); the repetition of unfinished façade was planned to include a characteristics from the long tradition of four-sided portico). the western Church (partitioning the space Defined by a 14- x 10-metre module into three naves, the presence of apronaos, with four pillars, the tripartite inner space— the external baptistery placed in front of the where the brutal simplicity of exposed façade, the “crypt” under the presbytery, concrete prevails—defines an interior with a the pseudo-matroneums; the presence mystique all its own, one that is not looking of the daily chapel that the architects — to establish a relationship with the outside having made a sort of indoor garden — world, except through the dramatic use of called the “chapel-hortus conclusus.” The light, which is filtered by the discontinuous consequence is what Figini described as texture of the walls that, crowning the “the primacy of the interior,” where light nave, define the pseudo-galleries and the regulates forms and defines the spaces. ” (1) intense and direct light coming from the The Modonna dei Poveri by Luigi Figini and large skylight above the presbytery. The Gino Pollini is a vibrant force of essential combined effect of raw materials and purity: the primacy of the interior that contrasting light sources enhances the opens up to the seemingly dull materiality structural detailing of the two trusses that of the rough surfaces, letting light, support the lantern and from one of which admirably conducted by invisible hands, is suspended the emotionally moving design the space, giving substance and cross with enamel decorations, by Father volume to both the forms and the absence of Costantino Ruggeri. form. It is a vibrant modulation that speaks “In the report accompanying the the language of an intense and universal project, the architects focus particular spirituality capturing both believers and attention on the specific typology of the atheists alike, almost by surprise, after the building ( …) pointing out some key themes: urban fabric’s first, suspicious encounter the idea of a harmonious construction with an indifferent volume, almost eerie (starting from the hexagon-shaped choir for the violent lack of expression of its that contains the altar — a focal point of the industrial language. whole plan — the building is organised on MARCO BORSOTTI the basis of “regulating guidelines” arising from combinations of hexagons, circles and (1) squares); the declared adherence to the S. Giordani, A. Turella, Catalogo delle opere in V. Gregotti, G. Marzari, Luigi Figini e Gino Pollini. Opera completa, Milan, Electa, Ambrosian tradition with the altar facing 1996, pg. 374-379.

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Church of Sant’Ildefonso / 1954-1956 / Carlo De Carli

piazza Damiano Chiesa 7, Milano

Completed in the same year as the has since been altered by the addition of Madonna dei Poveri church by Figini and disabled access ramps and a new building Pollini and dedicated by Cardinal Giovanni that blocked off access to the former Battista Montini to the worship of San churchyard). Continuing on the inside, the Ildefonso in memory of his predecessor, concept is expressed through the star-shaped Cardinal Schuster, this church is structured planimetric composition, focusing on what around the concept of centrality. From turns out to be the hexagonal presbyterial its urban location on a circular piazza, area, surmounted by a tall ciborium this theme is successfully executed in a supported by six columns and crowned by series of references reflected firstly in the three orders of ring-shaped balconies, whose façade solution: two lateral wings open up sequence fades away into the natural light to embrace the faithful with the concave streaming in through the tower-lantern shape of the entrance (a solution that above.

THE CHURCH WITH THE LANTERN IN GLASS BLOCK (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of Sant’Ildefonso / 1954-1956 / C. De Carli

The space thus generated gathers the sense of welcome. Compositionally, the altar faithful around the altar, addressing the becomes the centre of a hexagon towards congregation according to the Ambrosian rite which the entirety of the church’s other — well before this orientation was formally compositional movements converge. The decreed in the reforms of the Second Vatican smaller dimensions and the repeated angles Council — and fully responds to De Carl’s of the perimeter wall of the apse respond idea that “in Architecture, so-called interior to a greater sense of vibration, around the space is never the result of a relationship or spiritual centre of the church. (…) The a simple logical inversion of exterior space; creation of the three orders gave origin to the it is the genetic inner being of space itself, its choir loft and the balconies, both decorative actual genesis and thus the qualification of as well as those for maintenance. On the space as such” (1). first “perimeter balcony”, there are places The exterior of the building is clad in for some of the singers of the choir itself (…) exposed bricks; elements of the load-bearing the ability to access all parts of the church structures were also left exposed. On the bestows a sense of being able to fully embrace interior, coloured glass block (barely visible the church in its entirety” (2). from the outside) have been inserted into the San Ildefonso is a church that becomes walls, visually lightening them and admitting a “piazza in the piazza”, a square within the multi-coloured beams of light that mix town square, opening up toward one and together with both that from the lantern and enclosing a second. The central plan renews that, unexpectedly, of the rings of neon tubes its dialogue with verticality in a series of integrated into the balconies of the ciborium rings that reshape the ancient presence of that, in the darkest hours, create hexagons, the ciborium in an upward movement where an almost abstract luminescence that seems light can freely flow, because the architecture, to be a forerunner of some of the best insights essential and direct — columns, horizontal by contemporary artists, most notably Dan planes, iron railings — which also harnesses Flavin. “The church’s layout in plan and its it, becomes a succession of solids and voids massing come from its location in Damiano that allows itself to be permeated. Chiesa square: a large circular ‘piazza’ with MARCO BORSOTTI streets flowing into it at various angles. It was a natural design response to place the (1) C. De Carli, Ricerca in architettura, Facoltà di Architettura del lateral wings parallel to the side streets and Politecnico di Milano, 1968, in idem, Architettura Spazio Primario, to characterise the façade with a concavity Hoepli, Milan 1982. (2) C. De Carli, Chiesa di Sant’ildefonso a Milano in “Casabella that leads to two naves and amplifies the Continuità”, 218, febbraio1958, pp. 46.49.

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Church of Nostra Signora della Misericordia / 1956-1958 / Angelo Mangiarotti, Bruno Morassutti with Aldo Favini

via Della Conciliazione 22-24, Baranzate

“The cella, placed on a plinth, looks like An essential language brings a solid block — 28 by 14 by 10 metres tall — architecture back to its origins: a base, that is completely covered in glass panels columns and roof. In the photos of the rendered translucent by the insertion of construction, even when the glass volume sheets of polystyrene (…) on the inside. The of the assembly hall, diaphanous and roof is supported by four tapered columns, translucent, had not been completed, the eight metres tall, that face the entrance and Church of Nostra Signora della Misericordia support the two main beams and the six looks like a classical temple where the secondary ones. Each beam is formed by pediment has been replaced by a sequence thirty X-shaped concrete blocks, joined and of crosses in the building’s structure. prestressed in situ”.(1) The non-structural perimeter glass walls

VIEW OF THE INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of Nostra Signora della Misericordia / 1956-1958 / A. Mangiarotti, B. Morassutti with A. Favini nearly make the building seem abstract in that communicates through the reflections its rigorous, geometric essentiality, while of the perimeter walls: the baptismal font, the light — the project’s real “construction the double sequence of parallel pews and material” — makes it vibrate: by day with a the altar. Everything is linear, seemingly diffuse candor, by night in an almost unreal, in absence of gravity, without any hint of irregular luminescence. The plinth that ornamentation in order to make room for rises within an area closed off by a concrete the aesthetic importance of the structural and pebble wall — where there is the Way framework. It is “a building where the of the Cross created by Gino Cosentino unexpected transfiguration of space is given — and houses a crypt, directly accessible by the absolute rigour of the structure. An from the outside, isolates this iridescent architecture in which technique is accepted box, heralded by a simple cross. Inside, as the foundation of the building….”(2) everything is brought to an essentiality A unique and radical church, whose restoration, by now necessary, has recently

THE BELL TOWER (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO opened a lengthy debate about the most appropriate means of reconciling the adaptation of its functionality to the logic of a correct and proper conservation and whose absolute value in the canon of modern Italian architecture led the Superintendence of Milan and DARC to place it under the protection of architectural constraints.

MARCO BORSOTTI

(1) G. Barazzetta, Milano anni ‘50: tecnica e architettura. Morassutti, Mangiarotti, Favini in “Casabella” 721, LXVIII, April 2004. (2) Idem.

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Church of S. Luca Evangelista / 1959-1961 / Gio Ponti

via Ampére, via Vallazze, Milano

In the short period of time spanning of Milan — it is the compositional care given from 1960 to 1965, Gio Ponti worked almost to the main entrance façade that represents simultaneously on the construction of the key to understanding the project. Not three churches in his hometown: San Luca surprisingly, the focus on façade design is Evangelista, San Francesco d’Assisi and a constant that runs through the Milanese San Carlo Borromeo. In each, fundamental master’s work, aimed at finding a consistent themes of his architectural research consequential relationship between the appear, just as each also has its own unique aestheticising value of the structural characteristics. presence and the evocative power that its In the church of San Luca Evangelista external revelation can trigger in relation — an appointment Ponti received from the to its surroundings. The narrowness of the Committee for new churches of the Diocese lot that caused Ponti to place the auxiliary

THE CHURCH WITH THE HIGHLIGHTS IN CONCRETE STRUCTURE (PHOTO BY ANDREA MORETTI)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of S. Luca Evangelista / 1959-1961 / G. Ponti parochial spaces in the basement below pattern so dear to Gio Ponti, creates a sort the hall, is mitigated by the invention of a of “full-scale” section of a pitched roof slightly elevated façade consisting of two revealing the overall structural system, symmetrical walls, both gently inclined in which is defined by a rectangular nave plan towards the building’s median axis, with tapered pillars (whose ‘diamond- creating a slight set-back. This solution, shaped’ section is another typical feature however, together with the access stairs, recurring in Ponti’s work) that are detached would not be enough to evoke the presence from the perimeter walls and support the of a churchyard if it weren’t marked by concrete beams of the roof and its lateral the unexpected gesture of pronouncing it overhangs that mark the two secondary further, extending both side walls of the naves. The interior is plain and simple, church and the roof itself. The entrance, where everything, including the furniture, clad in small ceramic tiles that are either was designed by Ponti. The same is true for rectangular or have the diamond relief the façade. Ceramics, concrete, aluminium and wood all interact harmoniously to

THE FAÇADE OF THE CHURCH (PHOTO BY ANDREA MORETTI) create the cruciform wall decoration that stretches over the entire façade like a piece of fabric; the symbolic presence of two bronze sets of the Three Crosses and the statue of the Redeemer, as well as the tripartite distribution of the entrances, the central one under a gabled lintel and two tall, pronounced lateral doors of modernist derivation. A revealing detail: a thin insert of small glass blocks, running around the entire perimeter of the façade, visually separates the front surface from the sides and roof overhang, inducing a feeling of lightness that is consistent with the vision of an architect who “sees nothing but luminous matter”. (1)

MARCO BORSOTTI

(1) Quote from , as reported in F. Irace, Gio Ponti. La casa all’italiana, Milan, Electa, 1988.

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Church of S. Francesco d’Assisi al Fopponino / 1961-1963 / Gio Ponti

via Paolo Giovio 41, Milano

“They were the years in which my great men, he planned grand exterior scenes— predecessor, Cardinal Giovanni Battista emblematic of the church of San Francesco Montini, was promoting a vast network of al Fopponino’s windswept façade—breaking sacred buildings in the diocese, in the hopes the general, often monotonous, tendency of that the buildings would be “works of art urban façades. (…) ”(1) that pray“. (…) Gio Ponti was an architect The church of San Francesco d’Assisi who felt an urgent need to connect temples al Fopponino is an “urban” structure to their surrounding urban environment, whose façade design was generated by to ennoble this same context with a sacred the front of the church and, on the sides, sign, a sign that could assure everyone of has a series of small, diamond-shaped God’s presence in the midst of all peoples. openings —a recurring theme in the To highlight the house of God among architecture of the Milanese master. The

FRONT VIEW OF THE “DOUBLE-SKIN” SYSTEM THAT UNIFIES THE CHURCHYARD AREA (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of S. Francesco d’Assisi al Fopponino / 1961-1963 / G. Ponti result is the establishment of a complex in its humble solemnity”. (2) perspective and scenographic system that The project for San Francesco d’Assisi harmoniously integrates the sacred building is a “global” work, where Ponti was also with the associated parish buildings. The involved in the design of everything from three large, central windows reveal a kind the furniture to the sacred vessels and of double-thick walls, giving depth to vestments, and oversaw the definition of the stained glass windows, while others artistic/decorative accessories. are mere passageways for air and light. This church by Gio Ponti is, therefore, The rectangular, ceramic tile cladding entirely about welcoming and immediate “captures” the light in a continuous play revelation: an architectural embrace of reflections and shadows, giving further that extends its arms from the façade to dynamism to the whole. The geometrical the surrounding buildings, admirably shape of the windows foreshadows the reinventing the idea of the historic design of the plan, since the church is made churchyard, which finds its modern urban up of a tripartite system of aisles, in the completeness. In that gesture, there lie form of an elongated hexagon (another many of the themes dear to the architect: recurring theme, also present in the Pirelli the façade that stands taller the actual skyscraper or the following project for the volume of the church in order to seek the church of Santa Maria dell’Annunziata). sky, which it almost encompasses and The architectonically-decorative constant brings to itself in a play of diamond-shaped of the hexagonal polygon is even declared openings and surface finishes. Everything is in the design of the section of the beams an anthem to an architecture of crystals that and in the tall, central nave, with diagonal speaks about something that is finished yet beams of the tapered pillars that set up a suspended, lightweight yet solid, real and rhythm. yet abstract. “Behind the façade, (…) the temple will MARCO BORSOTTI appear in the suggestive perspective of its successive portals and motifs that adorn it along the tall walls. As for the exterior, so too on the interior: the architecture will (1) express its Franciscan calling through the Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Gio Ponti e la Chiesa di Milano in M. A. Crippa, C. Capponi, Gio Ponti e l’architettura sacra, Milan, simplicity of white walls. The extent of Silvana Editoriale, 2005. (2) the devotion that desired and inspired it, Gio Ponti, Relazione di progetto, as reported in F. Zanzottera, San Francesco al Fopponino, Milano 1961-63, in M. A. Crippa, C. dedicated to Francis, will be demonstrated Capponi, idem.

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Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo / 1964-1968 / Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini

via Catone 10, Milano

Ten years after the church of the becomes a rhythmic assembly of shapes Madonna dei Poveri, Luigi Figini and Gino and overlapping masses, while the relatively Pollini designed a new building for the Curia modest scale of the space, subsequently of Milan, which wanted to dedicate it to articulated, has more reassuring walls clad those saints whose names refer to the former in white lime. Cardinal Montini, who had by then become As the historian Joseph Rykwert put it: Pope Paul VI. The Church of SS. Giovanni e “Here, the outside is more architecturally Paolo takes on a very different architectural complex, while the interior is cozy and language compared to the innovative comfortable. Internally illuminated from strength that had characterised the previous above, the church is subtly articulated. one. In that instance, that which was almost Its geometry—whether in plan or in the the absence of any recognizable external structure—is based on an almost obsessive form and an intimate, brutal force of pure repetition of the Greek cross. That which matter and light on the interior, here makes it very interesting are the brick

THE COMPLEX FROM VIA ANGIOLO MAFFUCCI (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of SS. Giovanni and Paolo / 1964-1968 / L. Figini, G. Pollini masonry walls, designed as if they were a the rarefied fenestration) with continuous double surface. In some areas, this external protrusions in plan, as if projected outward masonry becomes a kind of permeable from a deep and invisible centre. The plan screen that hides a system of internal reveals a careful deployment of spaces passageways, which form an extremely that are autonomous but closely related, ingenious and varied series of short distributed along the sides of the central promenades achitecturales”(1) . axis, which runs through the main chambre. If the church in Baggio reveals an Continuous load-bearing walls open and introverted spatial tension, having entrusted close around the liturgical spaces, resulting everything to the perception of the interior, in a variety of perspectives and uncovering here we witness an equally-present more internal paths. This spatial system internalisation, but one that is interpreted in of “sensorial multiplication” is repeated a gradual and layered fashion. The external in the open/closed passageway leading to volumes, protected by a perimeter wall that the parish by way of a hortus conclusus, defines the sacred area on an urban scale, which is boldly accentuated by doses of are compact and impenetrable (also due to light penetrating from the above thanks to three rings in the ceiling—a truly modern VIEW OF BELL TOWER (PHOTO BY STEFANO SURIANO) tiburiums— which unexpectedly transform the exterior’s material and impenetrable solidity into an airy, luminous interior full of depth. “... The architecture, through a strategy of luminosity, tends to “read” and “understand” the space, which in this case is defined by the wooden, tar-coloured ceiling slats, the soft opacity of the floor and the whitewashed walls.”(2)

MARCO BORSOTTI

(1) J. Rykwert, Incontri con Luigi Figini e Gino Pollini in V. Gregotti, G. Marzari, Luigi Figini e Gino Pollini. Opera completa, Milan, Electa, 1996, pg. 149-150. (2) S. Giordani, A. Turella, Catalogo delle opere in V. Gregotti, G. Marzari, Luigi Figini e Gino Pollini. Opera completa, Milan, Electa, 1996, pg. 419.

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Church of S. Francesco di Sales / 1965-1970 / Vittorio Gandolfi

via Della Commenda 37, Milano

The church was built between 1968 building facing Via della Commenda has and ’70 by Vittorio Gandolfi, a second three floors, the uppermost of which is set generation rationalist architect, as defined back. The parish rooms occupy the first by the magazine Parametro in a special two floors, while the third was originally issue. planned for two residences , which have The church dedicated to S. Francesco since been subdivided into three. The other de Sales, also called the “house-church”, is wing of the building contains: the basement striking for its urban character and refined gym, a theatre and attendant service areas, integration into the dense urban fabric of the church on the ground floor and a Milan’s historic centre. “L-shaped” in plan tennis court on the roof. The rooms in the and sited on a rectangular lot (60m x 38m), basement are actually connected to the level Firmly anchored to the adjacent buildings, of the inner courtyard, to which they have it maintains the integrity of the street direct access. façade, but distinguishes itself through the The street façade is characterised by an loggias on the upper part of the building interplay of horizontal and vertical lines. and the portico on the ground floor, where The former are identified in the reinforced the entrance is located The portion of the concrete slabs that cap it off. The elevation

THE DESIGN OF THE PILLAR-AND-SLAB SYSTEM THE ENTRANCE TO THE CHURCH

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of S. Francesco di Sales / 1965-1970 / V. Gandolfi is marked by the balcony railings (made the surface of the wall and catches the of wooden strips mounted on a black light filtering through the stained glass metal frame) and by the downspouts that, windows, which carry the portrayal of the alternating with the beams, create a sinuous story of San Francesco di Sales. These shape of the building. The pillars of the bubbles of light constitute a note of color portico, the partition walls of the entrance, that captures one’s attention, contrasting as well as the horizontal slabs of the façade considerably with soft and natural tones were originally in exposed concrete, but of the building on the whole. The original have since been sanded and painted light floor (since replaced) was in rectangular grey. tiles of dark brown clinker, the same used A series of stairs and ramps connects in the portico. The ceiling was originally is the street level to the level of the church, exposed concrete but has since been painted leading to the floor in front of the two grey. It has a kind of frame that emphasises entrance doors to the church, a sort of its physicality and enveloping effect on the protected churchyard. Originally, the main space. Its detachment from the perimeter entrance, offset from the longitudinal axis walls allows a cascade of light to flow over of symmetry of the church, was made up of the walls below, which, being clad in a very a big wooden door that was opened during rough plaster, makes the entire space of grand celebrations, instead of the current the church reverberate. Today this effect two windows. The entrance space acts as the is lost slightly due to a rather dense grid mediator between the street and the interior superimposed on the glass block, limiting of the building. Inside, the church consists the light’s ability to pass through. On the of a primary nave flanked by two minor side ceiling there are two pyramidal elements naves defined by a total of eight pillars, each for artificial lighting and a recess above the with rounded corners, placed on a square altar to capture direct light, producing a base and tapering upwards, concluding in a highly scenographic. sort of truncated pyramidal capital. In the STEFANIA VARVARO left nave, a few steps and a brick parapet identify, at a higher level, an intimate space for small celebrations. The front of the wall swells almost organically to accommodate the confessionals, while in the right nave there is a series of low windows with frames that are in relief with respect to

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO Bh.147/itinerari

Church of S. Ireneo / 1990-2000 / Mauro Galantino

via Turati 2, Cesano Boscone

Constructed after winning the 1989 providing a public space, which was absent competition, “Tre chiese per Milano from the surrounding urban fabric at the 2000” (Three Churches for Milan 2000), time. Mauro Galantino’s design proposed an The church of Sant’Ireneo and its architectural solution that, by assembling relative structures — the daily chapel and the various buildings comprising the bell tower — face each other around the parish, was able to define a wide-ranging symbolic centrepiece of a large, raised architectural system that endeavoured churchyard, according to a comprehensive to take a leading role in addressing the solution of clear and precise geometric area’s lack of any urban quality, while also forms whose overall role is to define the

OVERALL VIEW OF THE BUILDING (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GALANTINO STUDIO)

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY Church of Sant’Ireneo / 1990-2000 / M. Galantino organising coordinates of a truly urban that filtre in through large openings in the space that is cohesive and rational. roof, placed at different heights around Equally clear is the compositional layout the ceiling of the main hall in a mystical, that was designed as a continuous series modern interpretation of the coffered or of reciprocally overlaid and interlocking “caisson” theme. stereometric volumes characterised by the As a result, the interior views are deep use of exposed brick and concrete. In the and elongated, flowing harmoniously interior space, these become a sequence into perspective views that also include of surfaces and masses where the rough, (in the apse and on the north side of the material nature of the concrete (marked hall, where the congregation is arranged by holes from the formwork) comes to life to embrace the altar) glimpses through in a continuous play of light and shadow windows onto rooms open to the sky above, such as the hortus conclusus, THE LIGHT FILTERING IN FROM ABOVE planted with olive trees. Mulazzani Mark (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE GALANTINO STUDIO) writes: “Galantino shows two buildings that are physically perceptible: on the exterior, the “contextual box” in brick, characterised by multiple relationships with the environment of the city; on the interior, the “functional box” in exposed concrete, which delimits the spaces and allows them to be used.”(1) The overlapping of these two architectural “containers” creates an intermediate space where light can find its way from the outside inwards, sometimes combining with large, saturated fields of colour giving a sensorial and perceptual feeling to “another” space, “a third building made of an impalpable substance.”(2)

MARCO BORSOTTI

(1) M. Mulazzani, La piazza, la chiesa, l’orto, in “Casabella”, 687, year LXV, March 2001. (2) Idem.

CHURCHES AND MODERNITY TYPES Form, function and meaning in architecture other itineraries in the series on www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it

Architetture d’acqua: le piscine milanesi Paolo Brambilla

Il Cimitero a Milano Massimo Ferrari

Milano alta Fulvio Irace e Federico Ferrari

Il sistema teatrale a Milano Enrico Bordogna

Spazi pubblici: piazze contemporanee a Milano Gizmo

Le università milanesi Paolo Brambilla