Eladio Dieste’s Modern Religious Architecture: Innovation through Form, Program, and Artistic Inspiration at the Churches of Cristo Obrero and San Pedro

Eladio Dieste was a tireless innovator of engineering and architecture during the latter half of the twentieth century. His work has not been investigated extensively, although his structural ceramic construction techniques have been analyzed more than his architecture—but both with little historical context regarding his connections and influences. However, his background significantly contributed to making him a confident modernist architect. Taking Dieste’s two most famous Uruguayan churches as the focus of this thesis, Cristo Obrero in Estación Atlántida and San Pedro in Durazno, the context for his production of religious architecture is clarified—in addition to his design approach and the technical details developed. The methodology employed is historical with formal analysis of photographs and plans, site visits, interviews, and recent photos. The intent is to understand how and why Dieste, as an engineer with no formal training in architecture, created these works of considerable architectural merit