Architects present project for futuristic OCU cathedral in Rivne

A design of the St. George Cathedral in Rivne. Photo: Dmytro Aranchii

The OCU in Rivne will receive a cathedral according to a project that architects call the first modern Orthodox cathedral in Ukraine, reports the bureau head Dmytro Aranchii on the Aranchii Architects Facebook page.

The cathedral is dedicated to St. George the Victorious. Aranchii Architects architectural bureau won the 2023 competition, with construction planned for 2026. The authors assure that they were inspired by the tradition of five-domed churches characteristic of Ukrainian architecture and tracing back to Byzantine architecture.

The project authors say that light-permeable perforations in the walls create a lace-like sacred pattern, giving the building, according to the architects, "a sense of transcendence."

The publication caused mixed reactions online. Users compared the building to a drone, characters from "Harry Potter," and Dubai architecture.

"This is certainly cool in an architectural sense, but not about a church. For those who understand the role and spiritual purpose of a church, and not just cool Dubai-style architecture," wrote Yuriy Solonko.

"Looks like a P1SUN copter, except that the church is designed with pulling propellers," believes Stepan Klimov.

"As for me, in the design they wanted modernity so much that they didn't notice the obvious: it's like a figure of some nazgul/dementor with severed arms, hiding its face behind white... from one angle it's one, from another – there's already a group of them," writes Serhiy Krasnoperov.

As the UOJ reported, Dumenko celebrated the 130th anniversary of the Rivne cathedral built by the Russian tsar.

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