Book Description

What role does architecture play in the face of natural disaster? What sort of ideas and what sort of materials be used to restart a community? How can the new draw from the old? One of the world's leading architects, Shigeru Ban, has confronted those issues in the wake of natural disasters around the globe. In 2012, he is working in Christchurch to build his largest structure ever--a 'Cardboard Cathedral' to stand in for the cathedral at Christchurch's heart, which suffered devastating damage in the 2011 earthquake. Ban is the most important international architect to have worked in New Zealand and the building will be or enormous local and international interest. Written by architect and leading scholar of Japanese architecture, Professor Andrew Barrie and fully illustrated with architectural drawings and newly commissioned photography of the environment, the people and the building, this book will offer visual and verbal insight into great architecture and its social role. This will be a book for anyone interested in contemporary architecture and to all those looking toward what the future might hold for Christchurch.