Massive Cathedral to be Rebuilt with Cardboard

Cardboard may play a key role in resurrecting a New Zealand landmark that was leveled in a natural disaster earlier this year.

In the aftermath of a 6.3-magnitude earthquake in February that rattled Christchurch, New Zealand, officials for the quake-ravaged ChristChurch Cathedral — which had served as the city’s centerpiece since 1864 — have been working with Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to build a 700-person-capacity cardboard cathedral as a temporary replacement.

The project is now in the conceptual stage, and a $50,000 feasibility study is under way, according to ChristChurch Cathedral’s website. There is an ambitious goal to open the cardboard cathedral on Feb. 22, 2012 — the one-year anniversary of the destructive earthquake, which killed 135.

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