Paper Dome Church

The Paper Dome is a temporary church building constructed using paper tubes as structural elements. It was designed on a pro-bono basis by Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect who is known for his paper tube structures and buildings. This temporary structure was built on September 17, 1995 to serve as a temporary church for Takatori Catholic Church after the Great Hanshin earthquake. The venue was not only limited for use to religious worship, but also used for communal gatherings. When the church community planned to build a permanent building, the structure was donated to Taomi Village in Puli Township, Nantou County, Taiwan, which had suffered the 921 earthquake in 1999. The deconstructed structure was shipped in 2006 to Taiwan, reconstructed there and is now a tourist attraction.