Concerning the spiritual in architecture. Four churches by Carlo De Carli

By comparing four buildings designed by Carlo De Carli in the decade starting in the mid-1950s, this essay aims to develop a perspective on the architecture of sacred spaces that is also peculiar to a way of meaning architecture in a broader sense. Carlo De Carli, their designer, was a key but little-studied figure in Italian post-war architecture. In his work, he was able to interweave theoretical reflection, publicist activity, design practice, teaching, and the promotion of artisanal production structures into a unified vision of architecture as a spiritual quest. The churches that he designed (Sanctuary of Our Lady of Tears, Syracuse, 1956-1957; St. Biagio, Monza, 1960) and built (St. Ildefonso, Milan, 1955-1956; St. Girolamo Emiliani, Milan, 1963-1965) are the paradigmatic realization of an idea of architecture that embodies the most profound sense of the communities that inhabit it, showing it as an element of value in the social, urban, cultural, economic contexts with which it interacts. By studying the original materials in the Archives (kept at the Polytechnic of Milan, Diocese of Milan and Parish of San Biagio Monza) and redesigning the projects, the essay aims to interweave De Carli's thought with a reading of the formal dynamics underlying his architecture. Thus, it intends to verify his fundamental idea that architecture is born imbued with life experiences, which it welcomes and of which it's concrete built forms (space, matter, light, and colour) become a true analogue, a revealer of meanings and an authentic donation of sense, bringing out a point of view on architecture for the sacred, but also on architecture tout court, that is still of topical value both in the practice of the project as in its teaching.