Santa Maria del Soccorso church | Ottavio Di Blasi

The church rises in a village with a strong agricultural economy. The main issue of the project was that the church design had to be familiar and well integrated with the local agricultural tradition. So, the idea came here from the historical typology of the “masseria pugliese”, the antique farm house that colonised the agricultural landscape in southern Italy. Low walls with alternating volumes and small courtyards are characteristic of this typology. The plan of the “church-masseria” develops radially from the centre of the liturgical hall, and defines the closed and open spaces of the parish centre with a centrifugal movement. The roof of the church is inspired on the “trullo pugliese” typology: dome shaped and covered with stone. But the antique material is used in a modern way: thin layers of stone, just 6mm thick, mounted on epoxy resin. In this way, lightness, resistance and durability are guaranteed. The church’s shell is divided into two parts, and then rotated to obtain in a natural way the entrance space and, to the north side, the entrance of natural light in the interior space. Like it, the dome has an ogival shape and is cladded with thin layers of calcar stone, fixed on an epoxy support panel. The dome structure is made of laminated wood and is split into two independent shells, in order to let the skylight come in from the north side and create an entrance from the south. One of the courtyards is located four meters below the ground level, so that the natural light can also get into the secondary church: the Crypt. A tangential walkway joins the buildings and courtyards composing the parish center.