Chiesa di San Carlo Borromeo a Fonte Laurentina

In the church of San Carlo Borromeo, designed by the Milanese studio Monestiroli Architetti Associati, the first recognizable element is the large tower located in correspondence with the presbytery of the church. It is a hybrid element, which simultaneously plays the role of bell tower for the parish complex and skylight for the presbytery area of ​​the liturgical hall; but it is above all a Landmark, which, thanks to its height, makes the church identifiable from the rest of the neighborhood, guaranteeing an element of immediate recognition within a peripheral place otherwise devoid of its own character. The church was built at a higher level than that of the main road accessing the area (via Edoardo Amaldi). To overcome the difference in height that occurs between the road and the entrance to the church, a terrace accessible by an inclined ramp was created. In this way, a raised space was outlined with respect to the road level in front of the complex that serves both as a square for the neighborhood and as a churchyard for the church. The parish complex itself is composed of two distinct parts organized around a C-shaped courtyard open to the square: a two-story L-shaped building that contains the parish center (parish hall, catechism rooms, parish offices, sacristy and rectory) and the church itself, the same height as the other building but with only one floor and characterized by the presbytery-bell tower, the latter inside the church delimits the area where the altar is located, giving it greater importance; the rest of the church has a flat roof placed at a height of 8 meters from the floor supported by extradosed beams that rest on a series of partitions placed on the sides of the hall, the lighting of the room is zenithal and occurs through a series of skylights placed between the partitions that support the roof. The interior of the church and much of the exterior of the complex have a cladding in tuff blocks. This unusual choice allows the building to be differentiated from the surrounding context while at the same time re-proposing a material from the local Roman tradition that is rarely used in recently constructed buildings.