Excerpt: Rethinking Notredame, designed by The Red Studio, attempts to resurrect the Spire like a phoenix arising from the ashes of its destruction. A glass cone reminiscent of the original spire caps the void left by its absence. Further a system of scaffolding pixellates gradually as it encircles the cone creating a blurred silhouette of the spire visible across the Paris skyline. A cascade of green integrated with the scaffolding simulates the organic and ephemeral feel of the existing rose window.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by Architect] “The wound is where the light enters you.” Rumi
Our proposal attempts to resurrect the Spire like a phoenix arising from the ashes of its destruction. Image of the blazing spire will continue to remain etched in the memories of people for generations. We believe that any act of rebuilding must take into consideration this powerful notion of the presence of the absence. We envisage the emergence of a new spire as a participatory project for the city in a state of perpetual construction activity. A glass cone reminiscent of the original spire caps the void left by its absence. Further a system of scaffolding pixellates gradually as it encircles the cone creating a blurred silhouette of the spire visible across the Paris skyline. A cascade of green integrated with the scaffolding simulates the organic and ephemeral feel of the existing rose window as it allows light to filter in through the spire.
The aisle spaces in the cruciform configuration at the terrace level chronicles exhibits related to history and evolution of the church in context of the City and its cultural identity. Pixelated scaffolds extends from the gable roofs into the interior spaces of aisles to create display systems, furniture assemblies and greens. A circular void on the axis of original spire is intentionally kept open like a gaping wound allowing visitors to view the innards of the church which have now been left exposed. Thus a resurgent new icon arises like a phoenix from the ashes of the old in all its magnificence and glory thereby reaffirming faith for a bright new life and hope.
Prof. Percy Adil Pithawala along with his team mates Dhruv Shah, Varun Shah and Devansh Patel have been recently awarded an Honorary mention prize at the “RTF – Rethinking the Future” international Design competition to reimagine the spire of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris which was destroyed in massive fire in April this year.
During the process of evaluating proposals the jury comprising of eminent professionals and academicians shortlisted 30 entries in the first phase.
During further screening process on 1st Nov. 2019 the jury declared one top prize winner and 10 honorable mentions of which our entry was the only single entry from India to have received this coveted honor.
Brief of this competition was designed to provide ample opportunity to the participants to collectively rethink the role of heritage in today’s culture and explore possibilities to facilitate a dialogue between past and contemporary architecture in present day context. Competition brief further urged participants to seek strategies for reactivating Notre Dame precincts and articulate it’s heritage and cultural values with contemporary habitability.
Notre Dame has served as an important landmark of French gothic architecture for centuries. It’s image has been deeply entrenched in the collective memories of it’s residents and has become synonymous with the city of Paris and it’s culture.
Today it’s fate lies uncertain in light of the recent fire which destroyed it’s iconic spire and the roof. This has further fuelled a debate within the field of Architecture whether to restore the spire to its original opulence and glory or to redesign a new spire which looks into the future while reminiscing it’s magnificent past.
The first strategy seems rather redundant in today’s times as one would have to resort to modern construction techniques to recreate the lost spire which challenges the very notion of restoration whereas the later would help add a significant milestone in the historic timeline of this icon.
It may be only fair to note that the spire had already been rebuilt several times in the history of Notre Dame since the inception of the original church dating back to the 12th century.
The actual spire which so many eyes saw collapse in the fire was a design by Viollet – Le – Duc. Incidentally he himself defended that restoration of a building had a component of improving it rather than restoring it to it’s formal state.
According to him restoring a building should be seen as a possibility to add to it as much as necessary to complete it not to be seen as before but to become as it should have been at the time of its construction together with the available construction techniques of that time.
It is in concurrence with this stand of Viollet- Le- Duc that we have in our proposal chosen to adopt a modernist stance to create a polemic strategy and reimagine a 21st century icon which arises from the chaos of its destruction in all its magnificence.
Our proposal attempts to resurrect he spire like a Phoenix arising from the ashes of its destruction. Potent image of the blazing fire will continue to remain etched in people’s memories.
We believe that any act of rebuilding must take into consideration this powerful notion of the presence of the absence.
We envisage the emergence of new spire as a participatory project for the City in a state of perpetual construction activity.
A glass cone reminiscent of the original spire caps the void left by its absence. Further a system of scaffolding pixilates gradually as it encircles and ascends the cone creating a blurred silhouette of the spire visible across the Paris skyline.
A Cascade of green integrated with the scaffolding simulates the organic and ephemeral feel of the existing rose window as it allows the light to filter in through the spire. The aisle spaces in the cruciform formation at the terrace level Chronicles exhibits related to history and evolution of the church in time. Pixilated, scaffolds extends from the gable roof into the interior spaces of aisles to create display systems, furniture assemblies and greens. A circular void on the axis of the original spire is intentionally kept open like a gaping wound allowing visitors to view the innards of the church which have now been left exposed. This is a resurgent new icon in the making arises like a Phoenix from the ashes of the old in all its magnificence and glory there by reaffirming the faith for a bright new life and hope for the City and the globe as a whole.
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