10-day truss build workshop
OVERVIEW
After the 2019 fire that destroyed the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris, Handshouse created the Notre-Dame Project as a gesture of global solidarity among makers.
A drawing from the hand-drawn survey by Rémi Fromont and Cédric Trentesaux that which Handshouse was given exclusive access to for the Notre-Dame Project.
Following our educational mission of creating ambitious, collaborative hands-on projects to explore history, technology, and the arts, Handshouse brought together a team of traditional carpenters, historians, architects, and students from across the United States to build a full-scale reconstruction of Notre Dame’s choir truss #6.
With exclusive access to a hand-drawn survey of the timber roof structure—created by Chief Architect of Historic Monuments Rémi Fromont and his colleague Cédric Trentesaux—project participants reconstructed one of the oldest trusses that once stood above Notre-Dame using traditional tools and techniques.
The Process
Timber Felling
Photo Gallery
The Notre-Dame de Paris Truss Project was only the start of the ongoing Handshouse Studio: Notre-Dame Project.
Since the original reconstruction workshop in July 2021, Choir Truss #6 has been raised and exhibited across the US, including at Catholic University (DC), the National Mall (DC), the National Building Museum (DC), Millennium Gate Museum (Atlanta, GA), the Great Lakes Woodworking Festival (Adrian, MI), and on the streets of Ann Arbor, MI.
Michael Burrey and Jackson DuBois, both vital participants in the Notre-Dame Project full-scale reconstruction of Choir Truss #6 in Washington, DC in 2021, were invited to work as members of the team of professional French carpenters rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris’s 315-foot timber spire.