Come next year, and construction will set out in full swing for Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand. So, you would be wondering what’s so special about this. Well, the church will be entirely made from recyclable cardboard materials.
Earlier this year, the church was substantially damaged by an
earthquake. So, it had been an absolute necessity to repair the church
since it had become a potent threat to the civil life of the city.
Shigeru Ban Architects, an architecture firm located in Tokyo, is the one behind this entire concept. The firm
choose cardboard because of some of its awesome features including its
easy availability and ability to recycle. As against concrete buildings,
cardboard based buildings are less vulnerable to earthquakes and can be
easily deconstructed. The entire cost of the project would be
approximately $3 million. Surprisingly, the architecture firm is working
free of cost for the Cathedral. And, once construction is over, the
church will be able to accommodate as many as 700 people. The
construction would be in the form of ‘A’ made from 64 locally obtained cardboard tubes. Coming to the life span of this church, it would be around 10 years.
There is a little of debate here. Taking all the goodies into
consideration, the temporary nature of the church, easy availability of
the construction material, the
lowness of expenditure, can the fact that ultimately, cardboard is made
from trees be so easily overcome? When we all are talking about a pious
convenience, is it a sin to throw a glance on what the effect of
preparing an entire framework of a building out of cardboard can be on
the already dwindling picture of greenery? Of course, you would say that
the proportion would be negligible when compared to the entire panorama
of ruthlessness that we are tolling on our forests, but yet, would it
not have been wise to contribute in the smallest way to preserving the
remaining precious layer? It would be sane to give a thought!
No comments:
Post a Comment