Church of Christ the Worker: Eladio Dieste

Abstract In a Uruguayan village inhabited by farmers and laborers one finds a singular church, traditional in its material but radical in form. This is not a story of enlightened patronage on the part of a community or a wealthy individual. It is the story of a remarkable engineer who, asked to make a modest work with his proven capacity in economical building, chose rather to challenge himself in realizing an unprecedented work that would come to be recognized as an outstanding architectural work. The Church of Christ the Worker in Atlántida, with its bold curving forms, stands proud in its featureless context, accompanied by its brick campanile. The energetic brick walls of the church embrace an open‐air narthex or porch that gives access to a space, complexly configured, yet also providing direct, intimate relation between the parishioner and the sanctuary. Though there is no immediately evident source of light, this is a luminous interior possessed of a radiance that elevates both the humble material of its construction and the sensibility of its viewers.