img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Words:
Jan-Carlos Kucharek

Etched concrete panels commemorate the 'Good Pope'

Though the ‘Good Pope’ John XXIII died in 1963, he had to wait to be made a saint until the year 2000 – a cool anniversary on which to receive the honour though. But he’s now been etched into history in another way – and not only by having a chapel built and dedicated to him in his home city of Bergamo in Italy. Set in the grounds of the city’s general hospital, the chapel is faced with concrete panels delicately etched with thousands of fern leaves. These were made by Finnish firm Graphic Concrete, which has developed a technique to apply a printed surface retarder to a membrane, against which the panels are then cast in moulds. The retarder slows the surface hardening, allowing it to be jet washed away and expose the grain of the concrete below. Would John XXIII agree with this verdant representation of himself, one wonders? God knows – but he was certainly a firm believer that goodness be more than skin deep.

Latest

Contract administrators could be putting their clients and themselves at risk if interim certificates are not issued, says RIBA Specialist Practice Adviser Robert Stevenson

Contract administrators could be putting their clients and themselves at risk if interim certificates are not issued

Want to help expand a village community hub, save a derelict Victorian pier from the sea or upgrade a 1920s Essex railway station? These are the latest architecture contracts and competitions from across the industry

Latest: Northamptonshire village community library project

Monica Pidgeon photographed the United States of America Pavilion, shown at Canada’s Expo 67 on the Ile Sainte Hélène, Montreal

Monica Pidgeon’s photograph of Buckminster Fuller’s tubular steel and acrylic structure

Mowat & Company used timber sourced, milled, fitted and finished on site to help keep its refurbish and adapt project on track within tight budget and carbon constraints

Local timber processed on site is key to energy-efficient refit

Local practice DLM rebuilds a 1930s changing facility to give La Vallette Bathing Pools a welcoming and inclusive building that is backed by the community

DLM has renewed a 1930s changing facility to give La Valette Bathing Pools a welcoming and inclusive building