On conservation issues of contemporary architecture: The technical design development and the ageing process of the Jubilee Church in Rome by Richard Meier

Abstract

A vast amount of iconic buildings distinguished by complex geometries have been constructed in the last two decades in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. Overall, the construction of these iconic buildings has led to technical innovations. As these buildings are often erected following customised construction details and bespoke technical solutions that are rarely tested in advance, measuring their ageing process has become crucial to understand if these geometries are sustainable in terms of the cost of their maintenance. This study aims to analyse the technical design development and the ageing process of the Jubilee Church in Rome by Richard Meier. Only fourteen years after the opening, this building is affected by extensive decay of construction materials due to both wrong technical design choices and lack of unaffordable maintenance work. This study aims to identify the causes of the premature decay of this building, recording retroactively its technical development and mapping the current state of damages.

Key words： Meier; Jubilee Church; Decay; Technology; Contemporary; Conservation