Saint John Newmann Church in Miami

This wonderful Catholic church in south Miami, designed by Bilbao architects Javier Cenicacaleya and Iñigo Saloña dates from the early nineties but, thanks to its atemporal design, the quality of the detailing and of the construction, it looks as if it had been built yesterday. 

The entrance to the building is through an elegant portico with slender red columns. Behind the columns is a small garden with a reflecting pool, enclosed by a freestanding wall. On the other is the entrance to the church. This portico is a space where the church community can dwell before and after services. On one side of the portico there are three shutters that, I was told during my visit, open up to small shops that serve coffee on Sundays.

The building's main door on the portico opens to a lobby, with a day care and Sunday school classrooms on the left and the church on the right. This space has high windows with stained glass, and passages of the scripture painted below them. The lower part of the walls is paneled with wood. On the other end of the main door there is a small chapel with a circular plan.

The church itself is has a square plan, with the altar at the end wall, and a gallery with additional seating on the three remaining sides. The floor, covered in a blue carpet, slopes down gently, and the seating is arranged radially. 

The ceiling is the most notable aspect of this space: it is a segment of a sphere that appears to be suspended. At the center of this ceiling there is a lantern that provides the church with evocative natural light. Light also enters this space through a gap between the ceiling and the church's walls.

This church is outstanding as the centerpiece of a religious and urban community. Surrounded by one-story single-family houses where most of the parishioners live, its distinctive shapes can be recognized from afar. Its layout is significant in the same way: it was conceived for people to gather and talk and relate to each other as members of a community with common beliefs and experiences. I was there on a weekday but ran into a few people who evidently identified with their church and took care of it proudly. "You should return here on Sunday," one said. "Our Sunday masses are beautiful."