Built to flex, made to last: Inside New Zealand's first new cathedral in a century

The architects of Christchurchʼs new cathedral have revealed new details about the building that they will last for generations

Warren and Mahoney, the Christchurch firm responsible for the master plan, architecture and landscape design, has released new details of New Zealandʼs first new Catholic cathedral in more than 120 years.

“Some projects carry a different responsibility. They ask us to think beyond our own lifetime and consider what stewardship looks like 50, 100, or even 200 years from now,” said Joseph Hampton, the firmʼs principal and lead architect.

The church will have seating for 800 people and go up on Barbadoes Street, a mere 20 meters (65 feet) from where its 1905 predecessor stood until it was demolished in 2020, nine years after the Canterbury earthquakes left it beyond repair.

The walls will be of local brick and stone, with glass-fiber reinforced concrete. The structure is designed to bend rather than break in a quake. To keep costs down, much of the building will be made off-site in building modules, which the firm said still allows “a sense of monumentality within a constrained budget.”

While the old cathedral faced the street, the new edifice will face north, toward a planned Catholic campus. Behind it will be a perpetual adoration chapel, which Bishop Michael Gielen said will be open day and night, along with the Te Rangimarie community center.

The diocese unveiled the design in July and appealed to Catholics to help pay for it. The project will cost 80 million New Zealand dollars (about $46 million). Insurance proceeds and asset sales cover 45 million New Zealand dollars.

Construction can start once the total reaches 72 million New Zealand dollars.

To save money, the diocese will put electronic bells in the two towers instead of real ones, saving about 7 million New Zealand dollars. Students from Catholic schools will design the side windows until the diocese can afford stained glass.

Gielen told “EWTN News Nightly” in September that the rebuild is “a metaphor.”

“Itʼs not only the cathedral weʼre rebuilding. We lost 30 or 35 of our churches — damaged or demolished — in the last 15 years,” he said.

Hampton said the cathedral is meant to reach beyond its walls.

“It is a home for the Catholic community, but it is also part of Christchurch,” he said.