Check out the ‘futuristic’ new Orthodox church being built in Moscow

Moscow architects have approved new, minimalist designs for an Orthodox church ready to be built in west Moscow.

With plans to hold up to 500 worshippers, the Church of Hieromartyr Ignatius of Antioch will include a glass wall, giving parishioners a panoramic view over the city’s Setun River.

Moscow’s chief architect, Sergei Kuznetsov, said that getting the project approved was in itself “a small miracle”.

“I have to say that in Russia, people are wary about using modern architecture for churches,” he said in a press release. “[But] the architects managed to preserve all the traditional elements of temple architecture.”

Said Dzhabrailov’s A.R.E.A.L. Architects led the design, along with Valery Lizunov and Angela Moiseeva from Archpoint Bureau.

Despite its contemporary aesthetic, designers say they based the church on a 14th century temple in the Russian city of Veliky Novgorod, built with a more traditional minimalist design.

Russia’s Orthodox Church has built more than 30,000 churches over the past 30 years, most in a traditional style that mirror pre-revolutionary buildings.