NZ quake city puts faith in cardboard church

The New Zealand city's magnificent Gothic revival cathedral hewn from local basalt was irreparably damaged in the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that claimed 185 lives on Feb. 22 last year.

Urgently needing a temporary replacement, the Anglican Church commissioned Ban — who donated his services gratis — to draw up plans for a place of worship to house Christchurch's faithful.

The result is the so-called cardboard cathedral now taking shape on the quake-scarred city's skyline.

Built from 600-millimeter (24-inch) diameter cardboard tubes coated with waterproof polyurethane and flame retardants, it will be a simple A-frame structure that can hold 700 people.

“It will be a huge milestone toward recovery for Christchurch,” project manager Johnny McFarlane said.

“It's going to be a great building to walk into, it's very light and airy and gives a good sense of dominance and scale.”

Ban, a world-renowned architect who has been hailed by publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine, sees the cathedral as a way his profession can help Christchurch's shattered community recover from the quake.

While the 55-year-old takes on major commercial projects such as office buildings and tourist resorts, he is also a pioneer in “emergency architecture” which can be rapidly erected in disaster zones.

He began in the mid-1990s, working with the U.N. to erect temporary shelters for refugees after the Rwanda genocide and has since helped with relief efforts in scores of humanitarian emergencies from Turkey to his native Japan.

“This is part of my social responsibility,” he told AFP. “Normally we (architects) are designing buildings for rather privileged people ... and they use their money and power for monumental architecture.

“But I believe we should build more for the public ... people who have lost their houses through natural disaster.”

He said many so-called natural disasters such as earthquakes were worsened by the failure of man-made structures and architects had an obligation to help.

“People are not killed by earthquakes, they're killed by collapsing buildings,” he said.

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