Rain No Dampener for New Zealand Cardboard Cathedral

FRANCE 24

Architect Shigeru Ban has designed a temporary cathedral in earthquake-devastated Christchurch, New Zealand.

NEW ZEALAND---Sections of an innovative New Zealand cathedral being made from cardboard have gone soggy in the rain, but the project will still be completed next month, the Anglican Church said Friday. The structure, which has walls made from cardboard tubes, is a temporary replacement for Christchurch's Anglican cathedral, which was destroyed in a February 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people in New Zealand's second largest city. Anglican Church spokesman Jayso n Rhodes said recent rainstorms had left some sections of tubing wrinkly and sodden, meaning they would have to be cut out and replaced. The A-frame structure consists of 600-millimetre (24-inch) diameter cardboard tubes, coated with waterproof polyurethane and flame retardants, placed around a timber support structure and topped with a polycarbon roof. It is designed to hold 700 people and have building life of 50 years. [link]