Rivas Vaciamadrid Parish Centre

This church and parish centre appears to have materialized out of a science-fiction movie. It is clad entirely in Corten steel panels - even the windows are covered with a Corten mesh. In a residential suburb, in an area filled with nothing but low-rise houses and apartment blocks, it seems initially an unusual choice of material - especially for a religious building. The structure is linear in composition. The south-western end curves to a sharp point to follow the site boundary. But it is at the opposite end where things become really dramatic. The north-eastward facing windows, behind the altar of the church, are pushed to the ends of truncated prisms that seem to be dragging the light from different parts of the sky into individual parts of the interior. The architects describe it as an explosion, frozen an instant after detonation. Other observers cite the influence of some of Picasso's work such as 'Guernica'. Perhaps it is an architectural representation of anguish or suffering?