Quake-hit Christchurch to build 'cardboard cathedral'

A temporary cathedral built partly of cardboard is to replace the 131-year-old Christchurch landmark left beyond repair by an earthquake in February 2011.

The Gothic-style Anglican cathedral, which dominated the city's central square, has to be demolished. The temporary cathedral, designed by the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, will be made of cardboard tubes, timber beams, structural steel and a concrete pad, and is intended to last more than 20 years while a permanent solution is sought.

Ban is renowned for his reinforced paper and cardboard structures and designed a similar "paper church" after the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan.

REUTERS