Finding one's way: contemporary churches of Ryazan in the works of priest Konstantin Kamyshanov

Abstract

Introduction. The research goal is to identify and analyze the architectural features of the orthodox church buildings, designed and built in Ryazan since the early 2000ies. A number of objectives are to be accomplished to achieve this pre-set goal: one must identify and study the church buildings constructed in Ryazan, analyze the space-planning solutions and break them down into typological groups; besides, one should study the biography of their architect, as his professional track record influences the city’s historical and architectural appearance. This research is focused on contemporary church architecture exemplified by orthodox church buildings.
 Materials and methods. Field studies serve as the backbone of this research which encompasses fact finding and photographic recording of the source material, information analysis and generalization, tabulation, making conclusions and formulating the opinion.
 Results. The co-authors have analyzed the problems of contemporary church architecture and made a brief analysis of the history of orthodox church building in Ryazan. The overview encompasses 12 orthodox church buildings constructed in 2000–2014, as well as the key facts and dates associated with their construction. The co-authors have also identified compositional and other unique features of the new church buildings. They have outlined the milestones in the creative biography of the architect who designed these items of contemporary church architecture.
 Conclusions. The research findings comprise a scholarly insight into contemporary church architecture. The analysis of new church buildings has helped to identify the features, peculiarities and architectural techniques, applied by the architect. The features, identified by the co-authors, define the appearance/typology of contemporary church buildings and their constructions.