| Popis: |
My personal background is in studying and working among building conservation, and I have been interested in architectural heritage for at least fifteen years now. When the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris suffered damage in the fire of April 15th 2019, it seemed to produce an exceptional chance for getting to reflect my knowledge on the field of architectural conservation and heritage to this unique rebuilding process. This naturally led to choosing this theme as the subject of my master’s thesis in architecture. Since the promised conservation design competition ended up not happening, and especially when it was decided, that the rebuilding would take a form of reconstruction, there seemed to be no point in starting to produce my own design suggestions for the conservation. My focus turned from this original idea towards following and evaluating the decision-making process, which had turned out to draw focus and raise questions. To narrow down the perspective, the focus is on the external part of Notre-Dame. For background and context, the basics of the methodology of conservation and restoration are introduced. Since conservation processes should always be based on the building undergoing conservation, the main points of the history of the cathedral of Notre-Dame are brought out. The forms of preservation, which must be acknowledged in a conservation process, are introduced on the extent on which they concern Notre-Dame. The happenings of April 15th 2019, and the weeks following it, are told as a starting point for the process. The worldwide attention highlighted the fact that Notre-Dame is not a completely ordinary building. Politicians were fast to make promises in just a few days after the fire without consulting heritage and building professionals. The announcement of holding a design competition was never seen through. However the promise of finishing conservation in five years has become a central goal for the whole conservation process. Exceptionally large sums of donations started poured in, and consolidation work of the building parts which remained standing, was began at site in a matter of hours after the fire was put out. Following the promises made by politicians soon after the fire, there was a lot of debate about how and how fast the damaged parts of Notre-Dame should be repaired. The promised five-year-timeline culminating in Paris Olympics 2024 has been held onto tightly despite conservation, restoration and heritage experts being against it. The tight timeframe has affected all stages of conservation starting from decision-making backed up with new laws. Some effects of the timeline can only be suspected. The controversial decision of making a reconstruction could have been the result of thorough research. It does however raise suspicion that at least a part of the reason for choosing this method was to avoid lengthy design processes and save time. Reconstruction can also be seen as a way to avoid the risk of a new design not being to everyone’s liking. This thesis is about many kinds of processes. It is about the ongoing process of rebuilding a suddenly destroyed part of a monument. It is about the process of decision-making, which has become more political than usual. By a new law, drawn out especially for this project, the Ministry of Culture with its heritage professionals has been brushed aside and the final say has been given straight to the president of France. It is also a personal process which has led me to evaluate and question my own values which have been formed in the past fifteen years while I have been studying in different universities in Finland, Italy and Germany. This thesis has given me a chance to bring out these values and reflect them onto single conservation project. |
