Have you ever walked out your back door one day and thought ‘That space needs a church’? Neither did we. But Barry Cox from New Zealand did.
Barry has been passionate about architecture and gardening all his life but he didn’t choose either of them as a career path. Instead he followed his other dream and took the position of head altar boy in his home town of Shannon. So it is not all that surprising that Barry’s passion for the architecture and appreciation for the pomp of churches eventually led to the idea of building a church.
A few years before, Barry’s love for trees helped him start his own business called Treelocations. It uses huge machine worked spades to dig out and move large trees. So having this technology at hand Barry decided to build his church out of trees.
He already had a good understanding of what he wanted the church to look like because he studied church architecture for many years travelling across Europe, America and New Zealand researching different proportions, walls and roofs of churches.
All he had to do now was plant around 4000 trees on his farm and then move them to a 12ha property near Cambridge that he chose as the location of his church. They made an enchantingly beautiful building that looks even better with the Mount Pirongia rising majestically in the distance. But the pictures say more than words.
Photo Credit: TreeChurch
