Transitional Cathedral opens in Christchurch

Some of our staff had the opportunity to visit the Anglican Church’s Transitional Cathedral this week prior to the official opening. It has been a unique opportunity for us to work with an unusual construction material – cardboard.

Designed by Shigeru Ban (working with Warren & Mahoney), the Cathedral structure features 98 cardboard tubes. For a sense of their size, note the photo bottom left. Our engineer Matt Franklin is holding up half of one of the tubes.

The opening offers the congregation a place of worship, which has been sorely missing from the city centre. It has already been praised for its acoustics.

To re-live one of our favourite interviews, here is the day the team poured the concrete for the Transitional Cathedral.