Church Dio Padre Misericordioso by Richard Meier

Meier's building is a dramatic church and community center surrounded by 1970s apartment blocks in a salubrious but nondescript suburb six miles to the east of Rome. Won in an invited competition against Tadao Ando, Santiago Calatrava, Peter Eisenman and Frank Gehry, the bright white church makes dramatic use of light both outside and inside. As Meier describes it:

"Light is the protagonist of our understanding and reading of space. Light is the means by which we are able to experience what we call sacred. Light is at the origins of this building... 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..."