Santa Rita church | Ottavio Di Blasi

The context is typical of Bari’s suburbs: it is a mono-functional district made of huge, hortogonal and stereometric blocks of social housing; there are neither social services nor shops. The new church refuses the reassuring look of the traditional building. On one hand it is one of the buildings of the district, on the other it refuses to belong to that deprivate reality, raising as the only oblique line of the landscape. The district is socially and physically divided into two independent parts, and the church’s ambition is to be the pin-point and the link between the two parts themselves. Therefore, the churchyard is located where the two ramps coming from the two sides of the district meet each other. The whole building is made of concrete and local stone: the tufo. The decision of locating the liturgical hall and the church’s courtyard on different levels from the street level and the parking area allowed to define a space where the neighbourhood can identify. The church lies on a raised level, and is supported by a concrete arch spanning 25 meters, and touching the ground at a single point located just under the apse. Following a traditional Romanic architectural feature, the secondary church (the Crypt) is located under the main nave but, due to the raised level of the main church, it is accessible directly from the street; the entrance is located under the arch. The Church and the rooms for the parish activities are conceived as a unique body, all cladded with white concrete “scales” that filtrate the strong skylight coming in. The classrooms face towards the cloister, which is connected to a garden with facilities, making possible open-air activities. Like a ship bow, S. Rita’s apse rises from the street asphalt, refusing to belong to the suburban misery and asserting a need of progress and redemption.