Design Options for ChristChurch Cathedral

April 4 2013

Design options for ChristChurch Cathedral have been released by the Anglican Diocese of Christchurch and the Church Property Trustees for public feedback.

As part of its commitment to build a cathedral on the same site in the Square, the Diocese and Trustees are inviting conversations and feedback on the designs through a website and a series of public forums.

In an aim to share the documents informing its decision making process with the wider community, the information which the Church Property Trustees are reviewing, will be released today on a public website as well as information about each option; www.cathedralconversations.org.nz The website also allows people to express a preferred option.

The Church Property Trustees are aware there are varied voices about what the final design should be but want to show commitment to rebuild in the Square as soon as possible for the heart of the City and for the wider Church.

The three design options consider the traditional and the contemporary to be equally important in the history of the Church and the City:

• Restoration: reconstruction of the original cathedral based on original form and materials known referred to as maximum retention
• Traditional: a timber structure similar in form to the existing cathedral with adaptions to meet design guidelines that reuses some of the existing building materials and contents
• Contemporary: a new timber structure that is a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional gothic plan with a sculptured external form in the form of hands in prayer that reuses some of the existing building materials and contents

Feedback to date has included a wide range of design approaches being submitted and these have been assessed alongside the Diocesan Design Guidelines, a functional brief, findings from an international study tour and the Cathedral Conversations public engagement to date.

At this point the Church Property Trustees and the Cathedral Project Group have noted some critical issues in its decision making;
• human safety as the highest priority
• the important heritage nature of the building
• the significant fiscal risk of all of the options and
• and complex matters of engineering

The period of Diocesan and public engagement until 3rd May will seek wider views on the options prior to a preferred option being selected by the Church Property Trustees.

Two public forums will be held on April 10th and April 24th, 7:30pm at the Westpac Business and Community Hub Conference space. The Church Property Trustees will also make a presentation at the Christchurch City Council Earthquake Forum on April 18th.

The Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, the Rt. Rev’d Victoria Matthews, says the design options are evidence of the talent and hard work of a large number of people. “These designs are a significant step for the City of Christchurch and ChristChurch Cathedral and a sign of progress towards people having a home in the centre of the city.”

ENDS

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