Paper Church
Kobe, Japan · 1995
Photo · Photo by Hiroyuki Hirai
An interior precedent for Shigeru Ban's Paper Church, demonstrating how low-cost paper tubes and a tensile fabric roof can create a dignified, light-filled sacred or community space.
- What we like about this project
- The central compression strut of the tensile roof aligns with the focus of the ellipse.
Materials
- paper-tubes
- tensile-fabric
- wood
- steel-cables
Visual identifiers
- paper-tubes
- tensile-canopy
- elliptical-plan
- shigeru-ban
- temporary-church
Style tags
- humanitarian
- structural-expressionism
- japanese-modernism
Visual tags
- paper-architecture
- tensile-structure
- sacred-space
- disaster-relief
- lightweight
- Geometry
- An elliptical plan defined by a continuous screen of vertical paper tubes, topped by a tensile fabric canopy that rises to a central ring and compression strut.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall behind a freestanding structural screen of paper tubes.
- Structural guess
- Load-bearing paper tube columns supporting a lightweight tensile roof structure with steel cable tie-downs.
- Spatial scale
- A medium-scale community hall or chapel, with a ceiling height of approximately 4 to 5 meters.
- Lighting
- Diffused daylight enters through the perimeter glass wall behind the paper tubes, while the fabric ceiling acts as a giant light reflector.
- Atmosphere
- Warm, communal, and softly illuminated by filtered perimeter daylight.
- Environmental context
- An indoor assembly space with glimpses of an outer structure or courtyard through the perimeter glazing.
- Spatial experience
- The space feels light and temporary yet highly structured; the vertical tubes create a porous screen that filters light on one side while forming a solid-looking backdrop on the other.
- Composition rhythm
- A dense, repeating vertical rhythm of paper tubes that wraps continuously around the elliptical space.
- Style reading
- Eco-tectonic structural expressionism
- Program
- Church or community hall
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- paper-tubes, tensile-fabric, wood, steel-cables
- Visual identifiers
- paper-tubes, tensile-canopy, elliptical-plan, shigeru-ban, temporary-church
- Style tags
- humanitarian, structural-expressionism, japanese-modernism
- Visual tags
- paper-architecture, tensile-structure, sacred-space, disaster-relief, lightweight
- Geometry
- An elliptical plan defined by a continuous screen of vertical paper tubes, topped by a tensile fabric canopy that rises to a central ring and compression strut.
- Facade system
- Glass curtain wall behind a freestanding structural screen of paper tubes.
- Structural guess
- Load-bearing paper tube columns supporting a lightweight tensile roof structure with steel cable tie-downs.
- Spatial scale
- A medium-scale community hall or chapel, with a ceiling height of approximately 4 to 5 meters.
- Lighting
- Diffused daylight enters through the perimeter glass wall behind the paper tubes, while the fabric ceiling acts as a giant light reflector.
- Atmosphere
- Warm, communal, and softly illuminated by filtered perimeter daylight.
- Environmental context
- An indoor assembly space with glimpses of an outer structure or courtyard through the perimeter glazing.
- Spatial experience
- The space feels light and temporary yet highly structured; the vertical tubes create a porous screen that filters light on one side while forming a solid-looking backdrop on the other.
- Composition rhythm
- A dense, repeating vertical rhythm of paper tubes that wraps continuously around the elliptical space.
- Style reading
- Eco-tectonic structural expressionism
- Program
- Church or community hall
- Perspective
- Interior Spatial
- Discipline
- architecture