METHODS USED IN THE FORMATION OF THE TRADITIONAL CHARACTER OF THE HISTORICAL ENVIRONMENT OF CATHEDRAL SQUARE IN ODESSA (UKRAINE) WITH THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE LOST OBJECT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE – TRANSFIGURATION CATHEDRAL
Authors: Meshcheriakov Volodymyr 
Published: February 2022

In 1936, in Odessa, the largest temple of the North-Western Black Sea region, the Transfiguration Cathedral on Cathedral Square, was barbarously destroyed. By this time, the Cathedral had undergone the robbery of valuables, legalized by the Soviet state, with the destruction of relics. Since 1991, on an initiative basis, the creative team of architects and students of the Odessa Civil Engineering Institute began to collect initial data and develop a project to recreate this outstanding lost object of the cultural heritage of Ukraine. In 1999, the team of architects of the communal enterprise "Odesproject" won the all-Ukrainian open competition for the best project for the reconstruction of the temple and began to develop scientific and design documentation, according to which in 2000 construction and installation work began on Cathedral Square. Since 2002, scientific and project documentation on the architectural and decorative finishing of the facades and engineering support of the Cathedral, the interiors of the Lower and Upper Churches, the Andreevsky Hall, baptisms for children and adults - was developed by the architectural studio "M-Studio". When carrying out a complex of preparatory work, the development of a draft design, working documentation, interior designs, scientific support and field supervision, the authors used scientific and practical research methods, which helped to substantiate and accept decisions for implementation, which were subsequently detailed in the scientific and design documentation. The article presents the main research methods that were used to recreate the outstanding lost cultural heritage of Ukraine – Transfiguration Cathedral in Odessa, 1991- 2010. The methods used in the reconstruction of the Cathedral are conditionally divided into two groups: the first group concerns the formation of the traditional character of the historical environment of the Cathedral Square and the second - the formation of the image of the restored Cathedral, including its interiors. Presents 21 methods from the first group, these methods were used in the study and formation of the traditional character of the historical environment of the Cathedral Square and the facades of the Cathedral: Building sanitation, Revealing layers, System approach, Compliance with the prototype, Field surveys, Archaeological research, Architectural and geodetic measurements, Analysis and Synthesis, Hypotheses, Architectural Yantra, Paradigms, Photogrammetric Reconstruction, Prototyping, Modeling, Logic, Citizens Informing, Comparison, Brainstorming, Visual Shading, Manufacturability, Collectiveness. The methods used in the reconstruction of the Cathedral contributed to the adoption of the most acceptable scientific and design decisions both in terms of the formation of the traditional character of the historical environment of Odessa Cathedral Square, and in the formation of the image of the Cathedral, including the interiors of its Upper and Lower Temples. The article can be useful for specialists working in the field of reconstruction of outstanding lost objects of cultural heritage.