ARCHITECTURAL TYPOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY UKRAINIAN CHURCHES: CHALLENGES, TRANSFORMATIONS, AND SPATIAL MODELS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to develop an architectural typology of contemporary Ukrainian churches of the late 20th–early 21st centuries as a system of spatial models expressing a community’s response to hierophanic experience in the context of liturgical dramaturgy, national tradition, socio-cultural transformations, and wartime challenges. Methodology. The study is based on an interdisciplinary approach that integrates architectural-typological, spatial-morphological, phenomenological, and theological-liturgical analysis. It employs Mircea Eliade’s concept of hierophany, principles of liturgical theology, symbolological as well as acoustic and lighting studies, along with a comparative analysis of Ukrainian church architecture and diaspora practices. The typological method is used to systematize spatial models and to identify their architectonic invariants and transformations. Results. The article substantiates a shift from formal and plan-based classification of churches toward the analysis of spatial models of sacred experience. Three principal typological models of contemporary Ukrainian churches are identified: the type of restored national tradition, the Neo-Byzantine type, and innovative modernist and hybrid models. The role of liturgical dramaturgy, light, acoustics, processional movement, and urban context in shaping the architectonics of church space is revealed. An analytical table and a matrix of typological formation of church space are proposed as tools for synthesizing the research findings. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the study lies in interpreting the architectural typology of churches as a system of spatial models of the hierophanic event rather than merely a set of established forms or stylistic solutions. For the first time, a systematic correlation between theological-philosophical categories and the architectonic parameters of contemporary Ukrainian churches is carried out, and the typological implications of this relationship are demonstrated within post-Soviet and wartime contexts. Practical relevance. The research results may be applied in the architectural design of sacred buildings, in educational courses on architectural typology and theory, as well as in further scholarly studies of contemporary church architecture. The proposed matrix of typological formation of church space serves as an operational tool for translating theological and liturgical meanings into volumetric and spatial design solutions.