“We were trying as much as possible not to imitate a church,” says Benedetta Tagliabue of Barcelona-based office Miralles Tagliabue EMBT. “That’s why I thought we’d never win the competition.” Commissioned by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana, Italy’s assembly of bishops, EMBT’s church of San Giacomo Apostolo was built to serve a growing congregation on the outskirts of Ferrara. On an empty poplar-lined site that offered few cues, entrants were asked to design a building for 300 parishioners along with a house for the priest and a parish hall.