Archinect - News

Take a first look inside the newly reopened Notre Dame cathedral

2024-12-11T17:40:00-05:00

Archinect has received first photos of Notre Dame Cathedral’s completed restoration following the special ceremony that was held in Paris over the weekend in celebration of the unprecedented five-year rebuilding effort.

Photo: © Julio Piatti/Notre Dame de Paris

Images taken from inside the restored landmark showcase the extraordinary effort that went into the project, requiring an international army of more than 2,000 workers and skilled tradespeople working under the command of the late four-star General Jean-Louis Georgelin (who died tragically last summer) and his chief architect Philippe Villeneuve.

Photo: © Julio Piatti/Notre Dame de Paris

It was Villeneuve's desire, as he stated, to "erase the horror" felt in the wake of the April 2019 tragedy by restoring the cathedral as closely to Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's 19th century design as possible.

Photo: © Julio Piatti/Notre Dame de Paris

Accounting for the extent of the damage—the church's timber framework, roof, spire, and three sect...

Sagrada Família to be completed in 2026, officials say

2024-03-25T16:48:00-04:00

The completed construction of the Sagrada Família is now expected for 2026, multiple international outlets are reporting. The announcement made recently by the group responsible for managing its construction ends years of speculation as to the exact opening date for Antoni Gaudí’s monumental affirmation of religious life in his native Spain that began 142 years ago this month in Barcelona.

The new completion date coincides with the centennial anniversary of the architect's death at the age of 73 from injuries he sustained in a tram accident on his way home from the site.

Work will culminate first with the Chapel of the Assumption in 2025 and be followed by a crowning tower of Jesus Christ the next year. This comes after the temple's four canonical towers were debuted in December. A source also told The Guardian that its controversial grand staircase, an element some dispute was not Gaudí’s intention, could be added by 2034.

Related on Archinect: Gaudí's Sagrada Família acquires prop...

Notre Dame’s plans for contemporary stained-glass windows spark cries of ‘vandalism’ in Paris

2023-12-26T14:53:00-05:00

Plans for the contemporary replacement of some of the stained glass windows inside Notre Dame Cathedral’s damaged interior have sparked a considerable outcry from the public a year before the Parisian landmark is set to begin reopening in the wake of the destructive 2019 fire.

Calls for a new competition to design windows for six of Notre Dame’s seven south aisle side chapels has led to a petition signed by 120,000 people urging the French government to reconsider on grounds that they would distort the originality of architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s 19th-century expansion, according to a report from The Guardian.

The new window designs would replace what emerged from the catastrophe undamaged and are therefore considered important relics of the blaze by heritage experts and other conservation specialists. Nevertheless, the Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, requested the French state’s approval of new windows, a solicitation President Emmanuel Macron then threw his office’s suppo...

Notre Dame Cathedral completes spire reconstruction ahead of 2024 reopening

2023-12-11T17:30:00-05:00

France had previously reversed plans for the restoration’s completion before the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games prior to the death of project overseer General Jean-Louis Georgelin in August. The replacement of the original 19th-century spire was heavily debated before officials decided on a historically accurate timber and lead reconstruction, which was done without the adorning sculptural relics and a copper rooster figurine. Both outstanding elements are expected to be added later, along with contemporary stained glass windows.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rebâtir Notre-Dame de Paris (@rebatirnotredamedeparis)

Now, with interior clean-ups and ceiling vault reconstructions also completed, an army of 500 will turn to exterior renovations and the installation of a new fire protection system and roof coverings.

As reported by the NYT, the collapse of Notre Dame's spire during the tragic fire deeply affected both Parisians on-site and a glob...

A 12th-century Scottish monk may have invented modern architectural drawing techniques, new research claims

2023-09-22T17:30:00-04:00

Research from a professor at the University of Aberdeen has advanced evidence that the art and practice of architectural drawing may have been invented by a 12th-century Scottish clergyman working in Paris around the time of the construction of Notre-Dame Cathedral and other important Gothic structures.

Dr. Karl Kinsella is a lecturer in Medieval Art History at the institution. His new book, God’s Own Language: Architectural Drawing in the Twelfth Century, presents the idea that a previously unknown monk named Richard the Scot was likely the first person to use the term ‘plan’ for drawings, sections, and elevations he apparently made in order to demonstrate the vantage point of the prophet Ezekiel's visions using then-modern concepts of geometry.

Kinsella says: “This is the earliest evidence we have of a complete visual description of a building including several plans, elevations and sections, but they appear in this strange theological work instead of coming out of building sites...

In a turnaround, French officials say Notre Dame’s restoration will not be ready in time for the Olympics

2023-03-06T17:38:00-05:00

Notre-Dame Cathedral's spire will be back in place by the end of the year, but a full reopening following the devastating fire of 2019 will not happen before next year's Paris Olympic Games. The reconstruction is still on track for completion by the end of 2024, the culture ministry told AFP. But the sharp spire, added by architect Eugene Viollet-Le-Duc during the cathedral's redesign in the 19th century, will be back in place by the end of 2023, the ministry said.

This setback constitutes a major blow to French President Emmanuel Macron’s lofty initial promise to have the restoration work completed in time for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games. Spectators had called into question whether or not the goal was feasible or even salutary from the beginning, particularly because of the water retained in the vaulted ceilings and other structural issues related to the composition of the stone.

Previously on Archinect: France’s Culture Ministry says Notre Dame is still on track to reopen in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics

The spire itself was the subject of a debate within the country. Prime Minister Édouard Philippe’s preference for a new version that was “adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era” eventually got scrapped in favor of a more historically accurate construction made of timber and lead elements in line with the government’s mandate to restore Notre-Dame to its its “last known visual state.”

France 24 reported th...

Kengo Kuma sets in stone an impressive stereotomic-inspired cathedral intervention in Western France

2021-10-28T19:17:00-04:00

Kengo Kuma and Associates (KKAA) has begun construction on a much-needed cathedral addition that will add a contemporary feel in "harmonious dialogue" with a 12th-century structure set on the edge of the historic Loire Valley in France.

The cathedral is host to several important polychromatic sculptures from the Middle Ages which will be protected by the new intervention.

With preservation in mind, KKAA’s design will transform the western portal of the Cathédrale Saint-Maurice in Angers into an improved entrance that presents the stone relics in an open gallery with sculptural archways and improved wayfinding from the outside into the bifurcated portal.

Viewed from the western entrance, the addition presents an astounding visual symmetry with the 900-year-old rebuilt Gothic cathedral. The grooved rectangular intervention is a few meters removed from the original structure, cast using stonework processes that...

Mark Foster Gage on Gothic architecture past and present

2020-05-19T14:01:00-04:00

Little over a year ago the world nearly lost one of its most recognizable examples of Gothic architecture, as the spire and a sizeable part of the roof of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned to ashes. Now the debate carries on about what to do with the damaged building. [...] What does it mean to be "Gothic" anyway? If something is Gothic can it also be contemporary? For such questions we need a little background.

Highlighting the one year anniversary of the disastrous fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, architect Mark Foster Gage takes us on a quick history of Gothic architecture in order to tease out the lessons this historical style can lend to contemporary architectural design.

Notre Dame walls could collapse without immediate structural support, new report warns

2019-05-22T14:58:00-04:00

Notre Dame is not stable and urgently needs reinforcing. [...] The collapse of a part of the vaults has severely reduced the safety of its structural system, which, in the case of a Gothic cathedral, does not rely on the heavy mass of the walls, as in classical architecture, but on discharging weight through clustered columns, external flying buttresses and counter-supports—a structural “exoskeleton” that until now has been extremely effective and resilient.

A new assessment of the Gothic cathedral's structural system after the devastating April 15 fire shows that the stability has been severely weakened by various factors and warns that the walls could now fail to withstand strong wind gusts.

The morning after the incident: Notre Dame's spire is gone and the roof partially collapsed. Photo: Pierre Yves Beaudouin/Wikipedia.

"Paolo Vannucci, a mechanical engineer at the University of Versailles, has modelled the engineering of the structure," reports The Art Newspaper, "and shown that the walls of Notre Dame could collapse under the pressure of wind speeds higher than 90km per hour, while before the fire they could withstand winds of up to 220km per hour, so they urgently need temporary supports."

Wim Delvoye touches up building equipment with a Gothic spin

2019-04-24T20:43:00-04:00

If our recently published article featuring a computer mouse/Eames chair mashup didn't provoke you, this one might just do the trick. With his series of heavy utility trucks outfitted in Gothic ornament, artist Wim Delvoye conceived of a mashup of two elements nearly a full millennium apart.

Cement Truck, by Wim Delvoye

The series likely came about given a genuine similarity between modern automobiles and Gothic cathedrals; unquestionably, both are marvels of human engineering and craftsmanship; one pursued for the appeasement of a higher being, the other for the satisfaction of a consumptive economy.

Caterpillar no. 5, by Wim Delvoye

New gothic tower added to Westminster Abbey by architect Ptolemy Dean

2018-05-30T15:40:00-04:00

Nestled into an armpit of Westminster Abbey, hidden behind a flying buttress that leaps up to the chapterhouse, stands what appears to be a gothic space rocket. Sinuous bronze tracery loops its way up the faceted shaft, framing crystalline windows between bands of lead arrowheads, like go-faster stripes shooting towards the heavens.

British architect Ptolemy Dean's new addition to Westminster Abbey, The Weston Tower, is the first significant addition to the gothic structure since 1745. This new $30m tower provides the first public access to the church's triforium space above nave. Here visitors can climb to the attic and visit the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries housing royal and religious artifacts dating back thousands of years.

Russian artist burns Gothic cathedral made of sticks at Maslenitsa carnival

2018-02-19T18:44:00-05:00

A 30m-tall Gothic cathedral built of branches and twigs that was set alight on Saturday (17 February) causing controversy in Russia. The burning took place at Nikola-Lenivets, a rural artists’ colony 200km south of Moscow, and was the culmination of pre-Lenten carnival festivities known as Maslenitsa. The event is often likened to the US Burning Man festival.

Artist Nikolay Polissky, founder of Nikola-Lenivets, creates impressive land art installations to burn for Russia's Maslenitsa festival each year. This Russian folk tradition is celebrated during the last week before Lent and traditionally ends with the burning of a scarecrow.

This year, the festival's title was Flaming Gothic, which is the literal Russian translation of the ornate architecture style. Although it was in line with the theme of the festival, Polissky's cathedral sparked controversy after the images and videos of it burning went viral. Some claimed it was an attack on Christianity and Russian Orthodoxy, while others asserted this played into Russian nationalist propaganda.

Flaming Gothic installation by Nikolay Polissky at Maslenitsa 2018 festival. Image: Andrei Nikerichev.

Far from his intentions, Polissky explains, “There was nothing of religious worship in my art object, of course there were no crosses, altar or any religious symbols. This is not a copy of any exis...

Chartres Cathedral restoration stirs up debate about historic authenticity

2017-09-05T17:35:00-04:00

The restoration aims not only to clean and maintain the structure, but also to offer an insight into what the cathedral would have looked like in the 13th century. Its interior was designed to be a radiant vision, as close to heaven on earth as a pilgrim might come, although many modern visitors have responded more with shock than with awe. The architecture critic Martin Filler has described the project as a “scandalous desecration of a cultural holy place.”

The decade-long restoration of Chartres' grand cathedral (rebuilt in its current Gothic style between 1194 and 1220) isn't going over without controversy: is the dirt that's currently being scrubbed off its walls, ceilings, and even Madonna statues, part of the building's history or merely melancholic kitsch that prevents the structure from radiating in its intended airy brightness?

Using lasers to decode Gothic architecture

2015-06-23T15:13:00-04:00

[Andrew] Tallon, 46, wasn't the first to realize that laser scanners could be used to deconstruct Gothic architecture. But he was the first to use the scans to get inside medieval builders' heads. "Every building moves," he says. "It heaves itself out of shape when foundations move, when the sun heats up on one side." How the building moves reveals its original design and the choices that the master builder had to make when construction didn't go as planned...