Notre Dame Reconstruction
In the summer of 2021, the Notre Dame de Paris Truss class gave careful study to the great monument by students and professionals alike. While the complex truss work of Notre Dame took on the primary focus of the class as students grappled with learning traditional timber framing methods and techniques, the study of the church as a whole was still of tremendous interest.
This model was constructed to better understand and portray the massing of the church and how a single bay and its parts relate to the rest of the structure. With such a complex work of architecture, narrowing down on one component in detail aids the viewer in understanding the various parts of a building and how they fit together to make the whole. Additionally, the model is meant to be interactive for the viewer, with numerous ways of positioning each section.
The 3D printed portion was constructed by carefully drawing a choir building section in AutoCAD. That information was then used to construct a 3D computer model in Rhino. From there, the computer model was edited to work with the reality of a 3D printer, scaling it, simplifying it, and developing a method for printing different sections at a time. Print time took over two days. The wooden portion is made of solid Basswood, carefully cut and sanded by hand.
The Catholic University of America, School of Architecture and Planning and Handhouse Studio reconstructed one of the oldest trusses that supported the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral. In August 2021, they hand-built the full-scale truss and raised it on the University’s mall next to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Subsequently, the truss was later hand-raised on the National Mall by The Catholic University of America, School of Architecture and Planning and Handhouse Studio, in coordination with the Historic Preservation Training Center of the National Park Service and with the support of Preservation Maryland.
