Notre Dame Truss Reconstruction
Trees & Triangles
Timber Frame update:
The cruck beams have been hewn, scribed, and fitted into the rafters, and the rest of the roof rafters are being installed this weekend. I milled a few of them from logs and the rest came from floor joists out of a 19th ce home slated for demolition. I’ll write up a separate post about this for the end of next week.
Triangles above the choir
I recently got back from a ten day project in D.C. in which timber framers, architects, and artists came together to reconstruct one of the oldest roof trusses in Notre Dame de Paris. The project was led by HandsHouse Studio, in collaboration with Charpentiers sans Frontière. Every part of the process (harvesting the timbers, cutting joinery, assemblage, and raising) was executed with the same methods the medieval carpenters employed eight hundred years ago.
With the architectural drawings given by Notre Dame’s lead architects, Rémi Fromont and Cédric Trentesaux, we reconstructed truss #6 which seats above the choir.
One of our lead carpenters on the project imported thirty hand forged felling axes, broad axes, and a few bisaguës from a blacksmith in France. (A bisaguë is a four foot long double-ended chisel-like tool that looks quite terrifying.) It’s used for chopping mortises and clean surfaces. We used these tools and others to convert the round logs into four-sided timbers.
Harvesting the trees
The white oak trees were harvested from Lexington, Virginia in partnership with Healing Harvest Forest Foundation who led this endeavor. Healing Harvest Forest Foundation’s seeks to “address human needs for forest products while creating a nurturing co-existence between the forest and human community”. In this case, they kindly asked horses to draw the timbers out from the forest. By doing so, they avoided the need for heavy machinery which can easily damage the forest floor.
Architectural Modeling
In concert with the making of the truss, HandsHouse organized an architectural modeling class through Catholic University’s architecture department. Students and their faculty built large-scale wooden models of the truss. This was a fantastic cross-disciplinary collaboration. We, the timber framers, were able to study and use the maps, drawings, and models for the truss, and the architects came around to swing axes on the full-scale version of what they’ve been modeling.
Three Raisings
After a blessing from the Catholic Cardinal of America, the truss was raised on Catholic University’s campus. We then dismantled and transported it to the National Mall for a second public raising before taking it to the National Building Museum to be exhibited for the month of September. It’s tradition to fasten a “marriage bush”, or pine branch, to the top of a frame when raised. It’s a gesture of gratitude to the forest from which it came. Typically the youngest of the crew has to climb to the top of the peak to attach the marriage bush. Our classmate, Henry, had the honor :)
To read more about the project, check out New York Magazine’s article here.
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