ARE YOU A FAN OF ORIGAMI, the Japanese paper art? Ever heard of a whole church made of paper?

It was neither daunting nor impossible to architect Shigeru Ban who actually erected a Paper Church in Kobe, Japan after an earthquake ripped the region in 1995.

The church served as community center for homeless residents and was built by about 160 church volunteers in five weeks with materials donated by a number of companies.

The Paper Church was named Takatori Kyokai Church, after the original Takatori Church destroyed and brought down by the killer quake.

Based on Bernini's design

The floor plan (10 x 15 m) is enclosed within a skin of corrugated, polycarbonate sheeting. Within the area, 58 paper tubes (325 mm in diameter, 14.8 mm thick, and 5 m high), were placed in an elliptical pattern.

The elliptical design is reportedly based on Bernini’s church designs, and the space between the eclipse and the outer edge of rectangular-shaped site formed a corridor and provide lateral support. At the entrance to the eclipse, the spacing of the paper tubes was widened, and the façade fully glazed to form a continuous, unified space between the interior and exterior.

Reports show that the church design is a low-cost, easy-to-assemble structure that could be quickly and simply put up by volunteers to provide a place of worship for victims of the earthquake. It was intended to be only a temporary structure but the church kept its doors open for almost 10 years until it was disassembled in June 2005.

The church has now been relocated to a site in Taiwan. Nothing reportedly remains at the original site in Japan.

Source: http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com,http://www.galinsky.com