Richard Meier

Meier was born in Newark, NJ.  He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University in 1957, worked for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill briefly in 1959, and then for Marcel Breuer for three years, prior to starting his own practice in New York in 1963. Identified as one of The New York Five in 1972, his commission of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California catapulted his popularity among the mainstream.

Much of Meier’s work builds on the work of architects of the early to mid-20th century, especially that of Le Corbusier and, in particular, Le Corbusier’s early phase. Meier has built more using Corbusier’s ideas than anyone, including Le Corbusier himself. Meier expanded many ideas evident in Le Corbusier’s work, particularly the Villa Savoye and the Swiss Pavilion.

His work also reflects the influences of other designers such as Mies Van der Rohe and, in some instances, Frank Lloyd Wright and Luis Barragán (without the colour). White has been used in many architectural landmark buildings throughout history, including cathedrals and the white-washed villages of the Mediterranean region, in Spain, southern Italy and Greece.

In 1984, Meier was awarded the Pritzker Prize, and in 2008, he won the gold medal in architecture from the Academy of Arts and Letters.

One of his masterpiece is Misericordia Church. Meier showed the simplicity but bold form, the Church’s welcoming, summoning and liturgical functions, and creating a structure rich in symbology and spirituality. His inspiration derived chiefly from his belonging to the Jewish faith which, as is well known, forbids depictions of God’s image, and from his admiration for Italian Baroque art, making a revolutionary use of light and forms.

The result is a place imbued in spirituality. The building itself is a religious symbol, with the now famous three “sails” symbolically evoking Peter’s boat, which in the Christian tradition represents the Church as the “People of God” guided by the apostle, attesting to humanity’s walk towards the third millennium.

Inaugurated on 24 October 2003 and dedicated to “Dio Padre misericordioso” (God the merciful Father) by the vicar of Rome, cardinal Camillo Ruini, the church is placed in an urban context between via Casilina and via Prenestina, adjacent to council housing estates where there no relevant landmarks. Despite the apparently modest dimensions, it has automatically become the focal and meeting point of the city quarter.

The open spaces and brilliancy of the interior light, thanks to the white surfaces, the numerous horizontal and vertical glass windows and almost total absence of sacred ornaments make this church a very mystical place that completely “envelops” visitors.

Inside, the absence of shadows – an extraordinary effect obtained thanks to zenith-type illumination provided from the horizontal roof light – make the Dives in Misericordia an “overly divine” place, according to Franco Purini in a recent article in Casabella, “it appears to forget the dialectical relationship with the dark, which pervades the whole history of sacred buildings in Christianity”.

All elements are designed to demonstrate the true “modernity” of the Catholic Church, which is seeking to adapt to the “revolutionary times” now before us.

 

 

And the three sails to the south outline the assembly area long its entire length, accessed via an atrium and flanked, to the left, by smaller rooms serving as ferial chapels and baptistery, while on the right the orthogonal layout of the area is reserved for administrative services. Upon entering the church, the space, which appears simple at first glance, gradually becomes more complex and surprising.

Elevation view

Section view

 

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