Ogee Design Magazine interview to Ignacio García

We know more about the project of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in Marbella of the hand of the architect.

Traditional temple, almost 20 meters high, will be constructed on the initiative of the Moscow Patriarchate. The project was made by IGGA – the architect studio from Marbella, run by Ignacio García, assisted by Russian technicians.

Based in Marbella, IGGA design studio exports architecture and urban planning services to a dozen countries on four continents.

Will this be the largest Russian Orthodox Church in Spain?

There is no other project like this in Spain. Existing two Russian Orthodox churches in Spain – wooden church in Altea (Alicante) and recently opened one in Madrid, both stand on plots of less than 1.000 square meters. However, the first to be built in Andalusia with the support of the Moscow Patriarchate will have a terrain two and half times larger than the others.

Does this temple project have more art and monumental architecture than others you´ve made?

Religious buildings and monuments like this one, respond to traditional architectural canons, with very strict demands in aesthetic and composition within the technical requirements of the design. Monumental architecture is a difficult discipline, due to more art than other architectural and historical disciplines that my studio is very familiar with, as it is not the first monumental project we do. The latest project was in Cuba, at the Caribbean Sea, a reconditioned watchtower in a beautiful nineteenth-century sugar mill, with a social, historic and exceptional architectonic value. A project was agreed between the Monument Office and the Historic Sites of Cultural Heritage of Cuba.

We would like to know more details about the construction..

The temple will be built according to the canons of the Russian Orthodox tradition, as seen in our recent drawings. As the project is not yet closed, it could still change. The present proposal includes the construction of a church with a cultural and social centre for the Orthodox community, a house for the priest who will attend to the church, rooms for catechism and meetings. For the most orthodox religious details, we have the support of Russian artists and technical architects. We are now adjusting the project details to urban conditions, such as the height of the domes and unique construction elements in these type of churches, that we have reduced to stay within the limit of 19,50 meters permitted for this plot.

Ignacio García, founder of IGGA International responds to the questions of Ogee Design Magazine, the magazine in the Russian language, English language and Spanish language, dedicated to the high level design and architecture in Marbella, Venice and Barcelona.