这所教堂设计的基础理念来自一个几乎“凋零”的环境，在这里，有被1964年的一场雪崩破坏的村庄的部分和17世纪的老教堂。 

       整个设计思想重点强调建筑与大自然无穷力量的关系，其中建筑是作为人类繁忙的日常生活和其存在于这片土地之上的表述，而大自然的力量将作品个性化。

       以石头为基础的厚厚的墙壁是整个建筑的个性所在。渐细成锥形的建筑层减轻了墙壁的厚重感，玻璃顶棚直到达顶端。教堂内部平面是一个嵌在椭圆中的长方形，与屋顶相呼应，逐渐变形成一个圆环。

       根据椭圆最小轴的准线，以及教堂空间的走向，在倾斜屋顶的最佳角度处形成圆环。椭圆象征着人类世界的焦虑不安，与空中完美的圆形相对。连接下方墙壁与上方墙壁的两个高低角拱的多孔结构，强调了建筑所要求的坚固特点。

       通过交替的双色线条，设计者强调了石质建筑典型的分层结构，突出了这一技术的工艺。

      The small church stands high in the Maggia Valley, and has been delicately integrated into its environment. This project was inspired by the condition of deep devastation of its immediate context – a highly unusual situation produced by a natural disaster; in 1986 a snow avalanche had destroyed half of the local village, as well as the 17th century church. The approach to this project was therefore somewhat unusual and was the fruit of a meditation upon the relationship between the building, as an expression of man’s daily labour and his very presence of the land, and the boundless power of nature. The subtle play between the massiveness of the stone wall and the lightness of the glass is a testimony to the survival of the building, which is designed as a bulwark for the village, in defiance of the mountain.  

      The thick lower mass of the stone wall reflects the nature of the construction as a whole, and is skillfully lightened by the gradual tapering of the courses towards the top. The interior plan consists of a rectangle inscribed within an external ellipse that ultimately changes into a circle at roof level Botta thus orientates the church space by means of the minor axis of the ellipse, which becomes a circle at the conveniently sloped roof. The powerful structure of the two buttresses, which tie the lower and the upper walls together, emphasizes the strength of resistance required in a building designed to cope with  brutal forces of nature. The construction method, marked by the stripped, two-colour fasades, stresses the classic stratification of the stone building and underlines the attention to gravity involved in this technique. In its insistence upon its own geometrical axis in the replacement of the former old church, this building boldly declares a historical heritage that is enriched by geometrical invention. This transformation of a groundfloor ellipse into a circular figure at roof level expresses the dichotomy of human apprehension and celestial, circular perfection.