NDM_Notre Dame
Concept Artworks
w/ Savoldi
2019
2 Corinthians 4:17-18
“ 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
The new life of Notre Dame starts from the scarfs, the burning smell and the black stains on the rocks.
Memories are stronger than stones, and the contemporary architect’s hands should be quiet and educated to let the visitor and the faithful to interpret the space.
The intervention is made by two ephemeral spires of cables and tensors that contains fragments of the ruins caused by the fire accident. The structure is a simple static solution where the weight of the first spire falls on the second and as a result, the opposite reaction keeps in tension the first one by using a single main tensor located in the mass centre of the structure. The concept keeps the tension of the fall of the spire, remembering how much fragile man constructions and beliefs are. The structure can rotate freely around the central axe, creating different colour atmospheres and sensations as time goes one. The light and the time relation are the vernacular concepts of the gothic cathedral, in which man can touch and experience the presence of the divine by feeling the change of the light.
The intervention focus is the central spire design without touching the other fallen parts. Notre Dame has to be preserved as a ruin where every scarfs and damages are explicit. The project wants to remind everyone to embrace death as a new start, without omitting it but celebrating it.