Transitional Cathedral (Cardboard Cathedral)

About this place

The Transitional Cathedral, universally known as the Cardboard Cathedral, stands at 234 Hereford Street in central Christchurch. Built as a temporary replacement for ChristChurch Cathedral after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, it has become one of the city's most recognisable buildings and doubles as a working Anglican cathedral and a hire venue for concerts, ceremonies and events.

History and design

After the earthquakes destroyed the city's landmark Anglican cathedral, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was invited to Christchurch to design a temporary cathedral that could also host concerts and civic events. Ban, known for his disaster-relief architecture, provided the design pro bono, working in association with New Zealand practice Warren and Mahoney. The building was dedicated on 15 August 2013.

Its structure is a triangular A-frame formed from 98 equally sized cardboard tubes, combined with timber, steel and polycarbonate. Eight steel shipping containers along the sides house chapels and storage. The gable end is filled with a coloured glass window of tessellating triangles carrying images drawn from the original cathedral's rose window. The building draws around 300,000 visitors a year.

Event capability

The main hall seats up to 700 people, and the cathedral is used both as an event space and a concert and recital venue. The volume, the timber and cardboard structure and the natural light through the triangular window give the room strong acoustic and visual character without any need for additional dressing.

Events at the cathedral are managed by Moveable Feasts, a Christchurch catering and event management company, so catered functions as well as unstaffed concert hire can be arranged through a single point of contact.

Suitability for MICE

The Transitional Cathedral works as a plenary, ceremony or gala setting rather than a general-purpose conference centre — there are no breakout rooms or dedicated meeting suites. It suits conference welcome events, keynote or opening sessions, awards ceremonies, choral and orchestral performances, and incentive-programme dinners where the venue itself is the story. Its central-city position also makes it easy to combine with nearby Christchurch venues for the balance of a multi-day programme.