Designing a new Christchurch Cathedral

When Christchurch architect Joseph Hampton was a boy, he stood and looked in awe at St Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Little did he imagine a couple of decades later he’d be the lead architect on the construction of the first Catholic cathedral in New Zealand for 120 years.

“I think it was that experience and the thought that I could maybe give that feeling to others that actually got me into architecture in the first place.

“So, I could never have imagined that one day I'd be presenting the design of a cathedral to a bishop, but there we are.”

The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was one of the largest heritage buildings lost after the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. It was demolished in 2020, after suffering irreparable damage.

The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch has developed the design in partnership with the architecture firm Warren and Mahoney.

Hampton has a strong personal connection to the project, he says.

“My great-great-grandparents donated to the build and my grandparents worshipped there. My parents met on that site and today my own children are part of the Cathedral Parish, so yeah, pretty special building.”

The project, like any other architectural endeavour, started with a brief, he says.

“Bishop Michael (Gielen) and his advisors came to us with a really beautifully articulated brief. It was clearly put together with a lot of love and prayer and consultation and it wasn't simply a list of rooms and requirements,” Hampton says.

“It spoke of faith and welcome and belonging, community, and so we understood the responsibility that comes with designing a cathedral and really our process began less with architecture, more about listening.”

And also a sense of legacy, this is a building for many future generations, he says.

“This project comes with a different responsibility, it asks us to think beyond our own lifespan. What does good stewardship look like 50, 100, even 200 years from now?”

The design is founded in “enduring principles of cathedral architecture”, he says.

“We're talking about light and verticality and proportion, there's a procession that responds to the liturgy, there's symbolism, but there's also a need to respond to contemporary Christchurch, and to today's realities around resilience and affordability.”

The design will use salvaged elements from the original basilica, he says.

“That connect with the memory that came before, but also set up a canvas for the community to build upon for the next 100 years, cathedrals aren't designed and built in a flash, they were typically built over hundreds of years themselves, so we need to make sure we're setting up a framework for that growth to occur.”

It’s not yet known when construction can begin. Fundraising for the new cathedral is still ongoing, Hampton says, and the Bishop wants the majority of funds raised before he lodges building consent.

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