The comparison between the walls properties from brick and reinforced concrete of Russian orthodox temple buildings

Abstract

The orthodox temple buildings have the wide range of architectural and construction designs, and the same time, their erection and projecting process are under the influence of strict orthodox canons. The exterior wall is one of the main structures of orthodox church building. For today, the traditional brick and contemporary modern material, reinforced concrete, are the mostly wide spread materials in orthodox churches buildings; the mix of these two materials is also possible. The issue is concerned with the analyses architectural and construction requirements to external temple walls and to their features comparison in both cases: for traditional canonical and contemporary designs. The strength, thermal and technical, acoustical, architectural and aesthetical, economical properties of walls are compared for these two construction variants. The scope of this issue contains the instance of approximate strength calculation for the temple of small volume and crude data for the cost of one square meter of external wall in four specific construction designs. Comparative analysis allows choosing a more environmentally friendly material and improving the energy efficiency of the facility.