Authors

Barantseva Elena V.
Techniques of shaping spiritual education centers: vertical unification of volumes

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №1 (93) March, 2026

The article contains an analysis of factors influencing the choice of vertical unification of volumes as the main technique of a cathedral complex, identifying the relationships between composition, functional content and space-planning solutions of spiritual education centers.

Barantseva Elena V.
A SITING TYPOLOGY OF SPIRITUAL AND EDUCATIONAL CENTRES IN URBAN ENVIRONMENT (WITH REFERENCE TO MOSCOW)

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (46) June, 2014

This article discusses examples of historical and modern multifunctional cathedral complexes with developed social infrastructure including spiritual and educational centres, and proposes a typology of siting spiritual and educational centres in an urban environment.

Barantseva Elena V.
SPECIFIC FEATURES IN THE SPATIAL PLANNING SOLUTIONS AND FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE OF SPIRITUAL EDUCATION CENTERS

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №3 (39) September, 2012

A spiritual education centre presents a multipurpose building or a group of buildings in a church territory. Such a centre would be engaged in a variety of activities in the parish, first of all, the educational work of Russian Orthodox Church. Spiritual education centres include, as a rule, catechization courses, a library, a lecture hall, youth organisations, various study groups, clubs, and studios. Spiritual education centres operate in both adapted buildings, such as church and monastic structures transferred to the Church, and newly-built buildings. In Russia, such centres started to appear first in the 1990s. The period of extensive construction of spiritual education centres fell on the second half of 2000s, and it is still going on. A new multipurpose project in a church territory leads to changes in the composition of its site and complication of spatial relations between the buildings. The spiritual education centre has come to rank second after the church on the church site. The majority of spiritual education centres have a similar range of premises, and floor area ratios depend on which activity is a priority in the parish. The prominent feature of contemporary church architecture is the constructions of cathedral complexes and multipurpose buildings and integration of the church with other buildings in the church territory. New building trends suggest that the network of such centres will be expanding, responding to the current tendency to integration and multifunctionality among public buildings.