In the 1960s the Architecture Principe group, formed by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio, designed and built the modern ‘bunker’ church for Bernadette of Banlay in Nevers, as an experiment with a new rapport between man and his environment. With a series of texts and hitherto unpublished images this book traces the history and impact of this 20th century masterpiece.

A provocative building, bold expression of the reappropriation of the form of the Atlantic Wall bunkers and a fracturing of the modern plan, breaking with the architectural doxa of the 1960s, the church in Nevers stands out as one of the first post-war critical architectural works.

In the 1960s the Architecture Principe group, formed by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio, designed and built the modern ‘bunker’ church for Bernadette of Banlay in Nevers, as an experiment with a new rapport between man and his environment. With a series of texts and hitherto unpublished images this book traces the history and impact of this 20th century masterpiece.

A provocative building, bold expression of the reappropriation of the form of the Atlantic Wall bunkers and a fracturing of the modern plan, breaking with the architectural doxa of the 1960s, the church in Nevers stands out as one of the first post-war critical architectural works. Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay through his historical position, between modern legacy and proclaimed radicalism, as well as through his critical position, which, through the oblique function, anticipated digital exploration of so-called “computational” architecture.