After successful completion of the course, students are able to identify different types of sacred buildings in the Abrahamic religions.
SACRAL ARCHITECTURE IN UKRAINE
For several years, the Department has been working intensively on the subject of "Sacred Buildings".This term the focus will be on the buildings of the Eastern Church in Ukraine and their different structural, functional and spatial forms.
Topics include
- building typologies: Christian basilica, cross-in-square church, courtyard and domed mosque, and the 'functional type' (?) synagogue
- stylistic and compositional features of sacral architecture built on Ukrainian territory from antiquity to early 21st century
- principles for the construction of Christian wooden churches
- defining "iconostasis": characteristics of its iconography in the Orthodox Rite
- selected examples of modern interpretation of the traditions of sacral architecture in Ukraine and abroad.
Sacred buildings in Ukraine today are represented by churches, synagogues and mosques made of brick, stone and wood. Some of them are landmarks or have even been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. They are remarkable for their structural, architectural, artistic and decorative solutions.
In general, sacred architecture still has the potential to be a guardian of traditions, an identity builder for a community and an expression of its will to believe. Ukraine is a country where Christianity is not just a "cultural Christianity", but a lived religion with enormous importance in everyday life. Understanding the role and associations that these buildings evoke - from the perspective of architecture and religion, but also from the perspective of the individual history of the building, the city and the urban situation - is a key challenge for architects. It is necessary to look at the past, the present and the future. It is the task of architects to critically engage with the changing demands on religion and architecture, to ensure the appropriate conservation of these buildings, and at the same time to ensure the preservation and development of the religious practice of the faithful.
Therefore, in the course of the project, also a number of examples of modern Ukrainian churches, both in the country and abroad, will be presented and discussed, and the students will have the opportunity to participate in a discussion on the subject.
As a final small "project", based on the results of the course and on the building surveys made by students of the TU Vienna and Lviv during a summer school in 2003, the students will be able to discuss and develop their own sketch project for the reconstruction of a lost wooden church of the 18th century near Lwiw (Lemberg).
The students will not only receive the theoretical background of the subject during the lectures, but will also be able to record their understanding of the constructive and spatial solution of sacred buildings using the method of literature research, photography, sketches from nature (during extrusion), sketching on A-3 sheets. During the final workshop the students will document their knowledge in the form of sketches of a project for the reconstruction of a wooden cross-domed church (based on dimensional drawings).
This course is offered as a blocked attendance course. Therefore, please ensure that there are no or only minimal collisions with your other courses.
In order to avoid these collisions or to keep them as small as possible, this course will be held
- on two weekends (tending to be Friday afternoon and Saturday) in the second half of March and
- one last weekend in May (course and final workshop).
Exact date and time will follow immediately!
