After the fire of April 15th at Notre Dame de Paris, we find ourselves asking what the
meaning of today's monument is. This proposal questions the relevance of Permanence. The
21st-century monument should embrace change, uncertainty, and be able to activate public
space by engaging with people in novel ways. The proposal considers the French Senate's
ruling to restore the roof to its former state, and arguably the majority of Parisians agree with
this decision. Heritage experts warn that restoring the Cathedral will be so complicated that
it could take ten years or more to be rebuilt, despite talks to achieve this by the 2024
Olympics.
Can we think of a monument with a duration of a decade? The project transforms the
scaffolding, which usually would only have the utilitarian function of support, into the
Architecture of the sublime experience. As Architects, we have a great opportunity to design
a Temporary Structure; that augments the Cathedral and interacts with the city of Paris and
the world at large. This project values the ephemeral qualities of scaffolding construction and
its ability to form spaces, play with light, and act as a canvas to project media. The project
would also allow visitors to see the construction progress from a viewing deck within the
scaffolding structure. On the exterior, a tensile skin is applied to this hyper-scaffolding and
would work in conjunction with projection mapping technology in order to display images
that make us think about the issues of today, stimulating our imagination. People around the
world could communicate with Notre Dame by voting for the images online, which will be
shown on the Impermanent Monument until the roof and spire will be restored_