Botta explained that he selected brick for its aesthetic qualities, and because "I try to utilise the most basic, humble materials, but with the desire to give them a certain dignity.

"[6] The highest point of the cylinder faces to the northwest, and presents a series of geometric forms and symbols from the bottom to the top.

Over the entrance are rows of small vertical windows that resemble the meurtrières, or narrow defensive arrow slits, adding to the appearance of a medieval castle.

[7] Within the interior of the church, the altar and the chancel are located to the northwest, facing the main portal to the southeast.

This was not part of the original design of the cathedral but was requested by the Bishop as a means of representing the divinity of light.

[9] The Deambulatory is a wide curving stairway that gradually descends from the southeast entrance along the church wall down to the intersection between the chancel and the nave.

On the left, going down, are a series of wide horizontal openings containing a series of twelve narrow vertical bays with stained glass windows depicting the twelve apostles, made by Father Kim En Joong, a Dominican priest of Korean origin.

[11] The lower portion of the gallery is decorated with works of art, including three large plaques created with petrified wood from Arizona, made by the artist Jean-Christophe Guillon, which depict the arrest, death and resurrection of Christ, and two bronze arcs representing the crown of thorns, engraved with the numbers of the stations of the cross.

In the center of the sloping circular roof is a three-dimensional triangle of metal tubing, with at its edges windows shuttered by movable panels, to control the level of incoming light.

Botta described his nave as "a primary space held between the earth and the sky, a place for meditation, for silence.

It is in an octagonal form, borrowed from early Christian churches such as the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.

The sculptural elements of the chapel include a modernised Virgin and Child statue, a stylised crucifix and a tabernacle made of forged iron and gilded bronze, all by the French artist Gerard Garouste.

It stands just ten meters from the city hall and is directly connected with a residential and commercial building complex that contains one hundred housing units, offices and shops, that form an informal "cloister" to the cathedral.

He said it offered a sense of sobriety, solidity, an appreciation for primary forms, and a sensibility to the effects of light on the exterior.

He used it previously in a simple form at the Church of Mogno (1986–1996), and used it later in a more complex setting, in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1989–1995).