The Transitional Cathedral

 The Transitional Cathedral (aka the Cardboard Cathedral) will include these 63 cm diameter tubes. They will support a 'plastic' roof and are going to be reinforced by wooden beams. The tubes are manufactured in New Zealand and currently are stored in a warehouse where volunteers have been coming in to paint on a waterproof treatment. These shiny looking tubes have been coated. The idea of asking volunteers to come in and coat them has been met with phenomenal success. The work has been accomplished in much less time than expected. The added bonus is that it has been found in places like New Orleans following hurricane Katrina, that folks who are able to assist in some way with the repair and rebuild are the ones who 'recover' more quickly after a traumatic event. There is something no doubt very mentally and emotionally satisfying going on when a person is able to feel like they are contributing to the rebuild after the damage inflicted by the quake. 
The rebuild is barely begun. Downtown there have been 900 buildings demolished already and a further 1600 still to come down.

The volunteers work in pairs as the treatment is painted on the tubes. A nice touch is that every volunteer who comes to help is permitted to sign their name on the inside of the tube they have worked on.  The tubes will be all done by 30 October 2012. The foundations are already laid and hopefully by the end of next week the building site will begin to look a lot more interesting as the framework is assembled.  At the construction site, a camera has been set up to film a time lapse record of the building site. It should be fascinating when it's done.
As we get further along with the construction I'll post some photos of the progress.
When the tubes are trimmed to fit there are leftovers and Philip grabbed a couple to bring home. One might get used as a planter. I think the other one should be used as a base for a "Transitional Coffee Table".