FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Handshouse Studio to reconstruct one of Notre Dame de Paris’ medieval roof trusses in Washington, DC, summer 2021.

BOSTON, MA USA – May 28, 2021– Handshouse Studio is creating educational workshops for their Notre Dame de Paris Truss Project in Washington DC this summer. With the support of Charpentiers sans Frontière—fellow traditional carpenters in France—Handshouse will reconstruct Truss #6, one of the oldest trusses from the roof above the choir. They will use the official drawings created by French lead architects, Rémi Fromont and Cédric Trentesaux, of the Notre Dame de Paris reconstruction process.

Using materials and methods of the original medieval builders, workshop participants will join a team of skilled timber frame carpenters from around the US to help in the full-scale reconstruction of Truss #6. This effort will be a gesture of global solidarity with fellow traditional crafts people around the world, honoring the importance of cultural heritage. We wish to share our Truss #6 reconstruction as a gift to France and the collective effort to rebuild Notre Dame de Paris as it was originally made.

Handshouse Studio is a non-profit, innovative educational organization that creates adventurous hands-on projects with communities, institutions and partners around the world as a way to illuminate history, understand science and perpetuate the arts. 

We believe collaboration is intrinsic to the effort to revive the Notre Dame de Paris’ iconic edifice. We feel that the true value of this process is the embodied energy created by the thought, care, skill, and learning that comes from rebuilding objects as they were originally made.

The Catholic University of America will host the workshop to build the full-scale reconstruction of Truss #6 outside on their Washington, DC campus for public viewing this summer. The truss will be hand-raised on Catholic University’s University Mall next to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception during the first week of August.

Working with the Historic Preservation Training Center of the National Park Service, and with the support of Preservation Maryland, Handshouse will hand-raise Truss #6 again in a one-day event on the National Mall.

In partnership with the National Building Museum, the full-scale truss will then be installed in the museum’s historic Great Hall in Washington, DC for an exhibition. 

In addition, Handshouse and The Catholic University of America,School of Architecture and Planning are organizing a national project inviting faculty and students from colleges and universities to build trusses for a large-scale wooden model of the roof structure that once stood over the choir of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Contact us to learn more about how you can support or be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime project at www.handshouse.org/notre-dame-truss.

About Handshouse Studio

Handshouse Studio is an educational organization whose mission is to create innovative hands-on projects that illuminate history, explore science and perpetuate the arts and has worked with communities locally, nationally, and internationally since 2002. Handshouse creates projects outside the traditional classroom that energize history through the reconstruction of historic objects.

Handshouse attracts collaborations with educational organizations providing students opportunities to work side by side with scholars, historians, architects, artists, and traditional builders in a wide range of subjects. Participants become an integral part of a learning collective remaking historic objects that bring to life tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Partner Institutions

Charpentiers sans Frontières

The Catholic University of America

The National Building Museum

Historic Preservation Training Center of the National Parks Service

Preservation Maryland

North Bennet Street School