The Russian church
Onion domes on tall drums over a cubic body: the five-domed cathedral with zakomary, tiers of kokoshniki, and the tented (shatyor) church.
The rules it illustrates
The onion dome on a tall drum. Lift each dome on a tall drum and give it a bulbous outer shell that swells beyond the drum and draws up to a point under the cross; build the shell as a light timber frame sheathed in metal over the structural vault below.
Let the roofline follow the vaults. Divide each wall into bays with pilaster strips and end each bay in a semicircular gable, the zakomara, that follows the curve of the barrel vault behind it; shape the roof to the gables.
Tiers of kokoshniki. Mount from the walls to the drum in stepped tiers of decorative gables with pointed ogee heads, the kokoshniki, each tier set back and narrower than the one below, so that the body of the church rises into its domes in a pyramid of arches.
The tented church. Instead of a dome, crown the church with a tall octagonal pyramid of masonry (the shatyor, or tent) set on an octagon over the square body, with kokoshniki at the transitions and a small cupola at the top.
Build after the model. Build the principal cathedral after an honoured prototype: study the old cathedral that is to be the model and keep its form (five domes, walls divided into bays each crowned with a rounded gable, three apses to the east) while building it with the best new craft.
Where it appears in the book
In the styles Russian.
In the chapters Domes, Byzantium and the Early Church.