The Church of the Penitent Thief in Bologna, Italy, is housed in a gabled white volume cleaved in two by a glazed crack and was built with the help of inmates of La Dozza prison.
INOUTarchitettura, LADO architetti and LAMBER + LAMBER were part of the architecture team that designed the church.
Called Chiesa del Buon Ladrone in Italian, it features a glazed cut that runs down both ends and along the top ridge of the pitched roof.

The minimalist form was an experiment in the stripping-back of a religious building to its bare elements.
The only hints of the building's purpose on the outside are a slim crucifix at the roof's apex, and a metal crucifix inlaid into a monolithic, full-height wooden door at the church's entrance.

Roughly square in plan, the walls of the church have been bent inwards. These tilted, almost windowless elevations meet in sharp, angular corners. "Taking a cue from the archetypical image of a church, the design seeks an architecture devoid of piety," said the architecture team.
"It reflects the essence yet is immediately readable: sober, solemn, but not monumental."

Prisoners who were reaching the end of their sentence and receiving skills training worked on the Church of the Penitent Thief as part of their rehabilitation, to underscore the community value of the church.

It also built upon the symbolism of the church's dedicated saint, the thief crucified next to Jesus who, according to Bible teachings, accepted the Christian mess...