PADRIGO, JAMMIE JOYCE THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 1

BS ARCHI 1-2 PROFESSOR: AR. TED V. INOCENCIO

THE JUBILEE CHURCH

by Ar. Richard Meier

Richard Meier is an American abstract artist and architect whose use on classic modernist
principles which is geometric designs, open space, use of emphatic color white and emphasis on light.
Meier was born to a Jewish family, he grew up in Maplewood, where he attended Columbia High
school. He finished his Architectural degree from Cornell University in 1957. Meier was started to
recognize and receive large public commissions. The first of his so-called white buildings, which
clearly built upon the pristine Modernism of Le Corbusier’s work in the 1920s and ’30s. During this
period, he formed a loose association with a group of young architects, known as the “New York
Five,” who advocated a return to Modernist, rational architecture. Because of his unique art style, one
of his prominent work is the Jubilee church located in Rome, Italy.

The Jubilee church was conceived by Vatican as a gift to people of Rome initiative to
replenish the parish life in Italy. Meier reminisce about how the look of the church would be, he
envisioned a fishing boat that something familiar to Christ’s early disciplines. The triangular site of
Jubilee church articulated by three ways first is the dividing the sacred realm to the south where the
Nave are located from the secular precinct to the north, second is the separating the approach on foot
from the housing situated in the east, third, separating the approach on foot, from the parking lot
located to the west, while on the northeast area contains a recreational garden with a terrace and the it
has a pool symbolizing the baptismal ceremony and space for meditation. The relative design of the
whole mind boggling depends on a progression of squares and four circles. Three circles of
equivalent range create the profiles of the three substantial shells that, along with the spine-divider,
make up the body of the nave. It is based upon the elegant purity of squares and circles, and the
instances of the shapes interacting with one another. The form and shapes unify as one accordingly by
giving an emphasis and purpose based on Meier wanted to achieve. Also, the materials and other
elements unite as one by assembled carefully on the materials uses. The building designed using steel
frame construction and concrete panels and coated by titanium dioxide coating, it helps the building
to stay bright white color. Other than, the wood utilized deliberately on the inside, with the solitary of
transparency of the color. Consequently, the structures are layers and enunciated with glazing’s
between to permit the structure to be extremely penetrable to light, with the extra advantage of
introducing the structure as straightforward and inviting to the public. The construction are the
quieted tones of the clearing all through the plan.
 Moreover, one of the most distinct featured of the church is the three curved shell walls, or
the sails it gives the feeling of lightness, the standing sails symbolize as the holy trinity and designed
to withstand the heat, wind, and earthquake. On the other hand, the innermost shell defines the edge
of sanctuary and the arched opening serve as the access on the side of the chapel. While the outer or
the smallest shell frames allows the light to spill across the chapel floor. According to Meier he
expressed his idea by saying: “In the Jubilee Church, the three concrete shells define an enveloping
atmosphere in which the light from the skylights above creates a luminous spatial experience, and the
rays of sunlight serve as a mystical metaphor of the presence of God.” On this statement it is an
evident that Meier work on the natural lighting which comes through the gaps between the solid
elements. The main source of the light diffused over time the inner part of the church changing varies
according to the time hour, weather, and the season also, the light rises from narrow slot at ground
level. The exterior plaza (sagrato) completes the plot's plan: the yellowish and cleaned travertine tiles
exchange with the white elevations. The Church gets the opportunity to be in a moderately open
space of ongoing roman expansion, at that point the recreation center on foundation and the stone
floor gives it the sensation of a water pool containing the "floating sail-transport" church. The only
assortments out grayish tone is given by a suspended wood-outlines divider, vertical and confronting
the most inside shell, while the significance of holy goods is underlined by sculpted travertine blocks.
The entirety of the sacrosanct goods and strict spaces are remembered for the organization through
the coherence and discourse of structures, and it adds to the class of the project. The conveyance of
various spaces is clarified by actual partitions: the ferial church is along the edge of the primary
corridor, somewhere isolated by the foot of the last shell; the passage is furnished with a support
space and a subsequent entryway, on top of which is the organ, incorporated in a sculpted cubic
component.

To sum up, Religious architecture has historically played a primary role in both the study
and
the development of architectural practices and theories. Without a doubt, this impact is attached to the
position which strict foundations have verifiably held in forming social values. Additionally,
numerous people have, for some explanation, become awkward or feel unwanted in conventional
church structures because of the recorded chains of importance related with them, the intrinsic
convention of the spaces, the impression of anticipated practices, or uneasiness with language and
understandings of otherworldliness or religion. The community aspect of this project may have the
capacity to expand, specifically when considering how architecture may have the potential to promote
a spiritually open community. With regards on how Meier response to the architecture I was amazed
and inspired because nowadays architecture play a role in many aspects. Also, because of this church
thousands of people was meant to socially to revive their faith. It was unexplanatory feeling while
reading article about this church because how Meir come up with this idea, and all it had really
amazed me. Basically, his design concept shows and highlight the basic role that architecture plays in
holy and religious spaces, and to demonstrate that the connection with contemporary architecture is
the key to improve quality of life in of the people surrounding.