Designed by Studio Kuadra, the new church at Cinisi conveys the power of holiness through architecture that includes strongly symbolic features and details. The Marazzi Mystone Gris Fleury collection, used for the cladding of the whole building, dialogues beautifully with the colours and rocky landscape of the surrounding landscape
Designing a place of worship implies careful thought about a wide range of factors: location, architecture, function, faith, symbolism and safety. Mater Redemptoris church, designed at Cinisi (Palermo, Italy) by architects Andrea Grottaroli and Manuel Giuliano of Studio Kuadra – winners of the competition held by the Episcopal Conference of Italy – meets all these criteria, and also successfully conveys the sense that this is a sacred place.
The new parish complex is immediately visible on arrival in the Contrada Piano Peri neighbourhood, with the church yard, a monolith clad with stone-effect material, supporting the bell tower which appears to spring from the earth and reach out to the sky. Symbolic factors are a constant throughout the building. The use of light is a central feature of the architecture, emphasising its colours and shapes. Inside the church, light from above (both functional and symbolic) floods the main nave, while carefully placed beams of light pick out the crucifix and font. The liturgical features are delicate, understated and small in size. A large window on the west side opens onto the walled ‘garden of olives’, which not only provides a striking visual reference to an important Gospel site and to the surrounding landscape, but also guides the worshipper’s gaze upwards, towards the sky and the nearby Mount Longa.
The entire project reflects a strong focus on technological and sustainability considerations.
Built in reinforced concrete, the church is clad on the outside with porcelain stoneware from the Mystone Gris Fleury collection installed using the principle of the ventilated wall, the system that provides impressive energy saving as well as considerably improving indoor temperature and humidity conditions, resolving problems of damp and ensuring excellent comfort levels in both summer and winter. “We chose the Marazzi Mystone Gris Fleury ceramic tiles for the outer cladding,” explains architect Manuel Giuliano, “over a large number of other options, because of its similarity in appearance to the rock of the mountain behind the church. In the twilight, the building seems to blend into its surroudings”.
The collection, inspired by the French stone of the same name, has an uneven grain and a high degree of shade variation, giving it a uniquely tactile character, similar in all respects to that of natural stone. Another fundamental factor was the careful selection of the different bespoke sizes – 60×120 and 30×120 cm – installed in a carefully designed, distinctive customised layout that makes the cladding an eye-catching feature, amplifying the light and creating a truly original facade.
Ceramic surfaces with Waxed effect, produced to the architects’ design, were chosen for all indoor floorings except that of the nursery, “to achieve,” Manuel Giuliano explains, “a uniform, pale-coloured effect that would propagate the natural daylight and increase the general lighting level”.
Ph. Alfio Garozzo