A Concert... In The New Christchurch Cardboard Cathedral

While I was in Christchurch the new Cardboard Cathedral was opened.
It is an amazing building...
And fantastic to see the new and creative
rising from the earthquake ashes

It's called the 'temporary' cathedral but the cardboard
is designed to last 50 years. 

It was designed by Japanese architect
Shigeru Ban... An internationally recognised
architect whose innovative work with paper
has helped crisis situations.
He constructed shelters made of paper in
Haiti following the earthquake that ravaged
that country in 2010... He designed homes made
out of cardboard following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina
which flooded New Orleans...

Now Ban has created this wonderful building
in Christchurch... From cardboard...
It is the most ambitious piece of 'emergency architecture'
attempted by Ban, who has forged a reputation for using
low cost, easily available materials to build structures
in disaster zones. Look at some more of his buildings here

Built from 600 millimeter (24 inch) diameter cardboard tubes
coated with waterproof polyurethane and flame retardants...
Each weighing 120kg.
The triangular prism is fashioned from 98
of these interlocking tubes.
The structure also uses timber, steel and
a concrete base with the cardboard tubes forming two
sides of the A-frame and containers helping
to brace the walls. One end of the Cathedral
is filled with stained glass and a polycarbon roof
helps protect it from the elements.
It seats 700 people

There was a concert every night for 10 days.
I only got to one... The Sweet Adelines... Very
talented barber-shop singers
I have heard them before and thoroughly enjoyed this
concert

I took these photos at random...

The height is awesome and the acoustics marvellous




 
 The containers making the lower walls
also provide office space on the outside.
 

The organ... A very modern structure. There were
several organ concerts but I wasn't able to get there again.
But that's a definite for my next visit.