Many countries in the world have to live with earthquakes. Most of the time, they only cause a small amount of inconvenience. Perhaps we are woken up in the middle of the night or get a bit of a fright. Sometimes, however, earthquakes cause a lot of damage. Houses, schools, and other buildings are destroyed, and it takes many months, and even years, to rebuild.
In 1995, there was a large earthquake in Japan that, unfortunately, destroyed the Takatori Catholic Church. Soon afterwards, Shigeru Ban, a famous architect, built a temporary church made of paper tubes. He generously paid for the construction, which was named the Paper Dome. The dome was later replaced with a permanent church in 2005.
In 1999, thousands of buildings, including a church in Nantou, were destroyed when the 921 Earthquake struck Taiwan. The Japanese people kindly gave the materials from the Paper Dome to rebuild Nantou's church.
In 2011, an earthquake struck Christchurch in New Zealand. The citizens asked Shigeru Ban to design a cardboard cathedral similar to the Paper Dome he had built 16 years earlier. The cathedral was completed in 2013, making it one of the top spots in New Zealand to visit.
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