L'Aquila Church | ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel

The competition guidelines called for the construction of a religious complex for liturgical functions and a small monastery, as well as the construction of a dining hall for charitable assistance. The preliminary design document hypothesized independent buildings for the two activities - worship and assistance - with the goal of keeping access and internal circulation separate. Our proposal took a different approach with respect to the guidelines, organizing the footprint on the basis of the model of a Cistercian abbey and combining the functions in a single organism with an internal courtyard/cloister. The connection between the church and the volume of the monastery, and the creation of an internal void, though with the separation of the dining hall, permitted use of the area in a much more efficient way, generating a large set-back in front of the church, a parvis exclusively for pedestrians that sets the tone, in spite of the necessarily small size of the building, of a place of worship.