hardly anyone knew anything about or that
were very nearly lost to history. With the quantity of archival records and existence of exceptional preservation architects and traditional craftsmanship in France, the French were well-equipped to take on the daunting challenge of rebuilding this iconic cathedral.
But a few things followed. First, some French leaders and members of the news media made claims suggesting that neither the skills or materials were available to rebuild Notre-Dame as it was originally made. And second, the year that followed was 2020, the moment when the whole world collapsed into pandemic lockdowns. With overwhelmingly universal feelings of isolation, uncertainty, and devastating loss, the desire to cultivate community, connection, and positivity was viscerally palpable. This was one of those rare instances when a big idea seems fueled by forces beyond what we understand, helping it come together against odds that might otherwise make it seem insurmountable.
We learned that another intrepid group of traditional craftspeople called Charpentiers sans Frontiers (Carpenters Without Borders) gathered in that first summer of the pandemic to reconstruct a full-scale replica of a Notre-Dame truss using traditional techniques to demonstrate to their own government that there were indeed people with the appropriate skills eager to rebuild Notre-Dame as it was originally made. We felt moved to join their effort.
In a gesture of solidarity, we reached into our community to connect with François Calame, an ethnologist in the French Ministry of Culture and leader of Charpentiers sans Frontiers (CsF), to inform him that, as a similar educational organization and community of makers in the US, we wanted to stand with CsF to show that people around the globe still had the traditional skills needed to reconstruct Notre-Dame.
François Calame, supported our effort, and connected us with Rémi Fromont, the young French architect who had completed a meticulous hand-drawn survey of Notre-Dame’s entire wooden roof system in 2015. Rémi Fromont, who had since become Chief Restoration Architect of Notre-Dame of Paris, also supported our effort and shared with us his drawings to build both a 1:10 scale model of La Forêt, and a full-scale replica truss. In fact, he specially suggested that we reconstruct Truss # 6 from the choir section of the roof system as it would provide greater understanding of the complex structure as a whole. CsF had reconstructed Nave Truss #7 in their demonstration in 2020.
In 2021, Handshouse gathered in Washington, DC. Using little more than axes and string, a group of talented makers, architects, students, and scholars cut and assembled a full-scale replica of one of the trusses that had stood above the Notre-Dame choir for the better part of a century. Following our truss workshop in DC, this project has had ongoing requests for workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions and presentations around the U.S. Handshouse Studio seeking to celebrate and illuminate this craft history with more participants has met
the demand to pack up and reassemble the full-scale truss, as well as to expand the project investigation to include hands-on workshops collaboratively building a 1:10 scale model of “La Forêt” and a full-scale replica of the rooster that once stood atop the Viollet-la-duc spire.
Architectural historian Dr. Lindsay Cook, PhD joined Handshouse as the Notre-Dame project historian, which afforded us access to not only the survey conducted by Rémi Fromont and Cédric Trentesaux but also the remarkable composite laser survey assembled by the Chantier Scientifique (CNRS/MC) and the architectural tender created for the official reconstruction of the timber roof system. These highly restricted resources granted the Handshouse Notre-Dame Project participants a unique window into both the medieval construction of and the contemporary effort to restore the cathedral. We invited professional and aspiring architects, preservationists,
carpenters, artists, and medievalists to workshops held around the U.S. to physically
inspired the involvement and commitment of
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