Qualla: Paper Dome https://qualla.com/paper-dome en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/m/b/paper-dome-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Paper Dome https://qualla.com/paper-dome Paper Dome: Introduction https://qualla.com/paper-dome/ Photo credit Pengruyi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fifty-eight cardboard tubes hold up a church. That sentence sounds like the setup to a riddle, but the Paper Dome is real, standing today in a lush valley in central Taiwan, far from the Japanese city where it was born. Designed by architect Shigeru Ban in the aftermath of the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake, this temporary structure was never meant to last. It was built in five weeks by 160 volunteers to replace the Takatori Catholic Church in Kobe, where 60 percent of all buildings had been destroyed. A statue of Jesus survived the quake unscathed, and the community took that as a sign to rebuild immediately. Ban, already known for using paper in architecture and for designing shelters for refugees in Africa and South America, created something startlingly elegant from the humblest of materials.

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Image: Pengruyi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/m/b/paper-dome-wp/wsmb-paper-dome-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Paper Dome: From Rubble to Gathering Place https://qualla.com/paper-dome/ Photo credit Ho.siminn, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Paper Dome was never just a church. From its first day in Kobe on September 17, 1995, it served as community center, meeting hall, and emotional anchor for a neighborhood in shock. Ban shaped 58 cardboard tubes into an elliptical frame, each tube 33 centimeters in diameter an...

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Image: Ho.siminn | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/m/b/paper-dome-wp/wsmb-paper-dome-from-rubble-to-gathering-place.mp3 0:06 2 full Paper Dome: A Second Life Across the Sea https://qualla.com/paper-dome/ Photo credit Ho.siminn, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 2005, the Kobe congregation had outgrown its paper walls and planned a permanent replacement. The dome was slated for demolition. Then the president of Taiwan's New Homeland Foundation visited Kobe and proposed a different ending: donate the structure to Taomi Village in Nanto...

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Image: Ho.siminn | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/m/b/paper-dome-wp/wsmb-paper-dome-a-second-life-across-the-sea.mp3 0:06 3 full Paper Dome: Resurrection in a Valley https://qualla.com/paper-dome/ Photo credit User:Fcuk1203, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 25, 2008, more than 1,000 people gathered in Taomi Village to reassemble the Paper Dome. Each cardboard tube had been recoated with a water-resistant finish produced locally in Puli Township. The dome opened to visitors the very next day, nine years to the season after the...

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Image: User:Fcuk1203 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/m/b/paper-dome-wp/wsmb-paper-dome-resurrection-in-a-valley.mp3 0:06 4 full Paper Dome: The Architect of Necessity https://qualla.com/paper-dome/ Photo credit Ho.siminn, CC BY-SA 3.0. Shigeru Ban built his career on the conviction that architecture should serve people who need it most. Before the Paper Dome, he had designed paper-tube shelters for refugees, discovering that cardboard insulated better than the cheap plastic sheeting aid agencies typically provi...

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Image: Ho.siminn | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/m/b/paper-dome-wp/wsmb-paper-dome-the-architect-of-necessity.mp3 0:06 5 full