Construction of a large composite gridshell structure: A lightweight structure made with pultruded glass fibre reinforced polymer tubes

The Ephemeral Cathedral of Créteil at Paris, France, is a gridshell structure made of composite materials. Built in 2013, this 350 m² religious edifice is a temporary church meant to gather the parishioners during the two year renovation of their permanent cathedral. This large-scale prototype represents a first in the building industry which still shows excessive apprehension for the use of non-traditional materials such as composites, especially when it comes to structural applications.