Rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral

杨庆春

2019年4月15日晚，一個世界级的噩梦在巴黎悄悄降临。突如其来的大火，将巴黎圣母院吞噬、撕毁，其标志性尖顶在烈焰下倒塌。

4个月后，从全球各地纷沓而来的关于“巴黎圣母院”修复设计方案中，中国建筑师蔡泽宇和李思蓓的“巴黎心跳（Paris Heartbeat）”脱颖而出。虽然这是一场民间自发性举办的设计比赛，但还是牵动了全世界爱护建筑守护历史的心。除了夺冠的“巴黎心跳”方案外，还有其他来自50多个国家的200多种设计方案，纷纷想要为历史文明的再次绽放出一份力。

Two Chinese designers， Cai Zeyu and Li Sibei， with their work Paris Heart Beat， had won the first prize in a design competition for rebuilding Notre Dame Cathedral in France. The competition was started by Go Architect， an independent publisher of books in LA. It received 226 works from 56 countries in all， with over 30，000 people voting during the competition.

Cai and Li stated， “We believe the 2019 fire will mark a new period for Notre Dame.” They came up with the idea of a glass roof for the Cathedral to match the changing city. In addition， the spire’s tip will be designed as “a time capsule to remember history and save space for future stories”.

Cai and Li both had been to Notre Dame and were impressed by “the grandness， beauty and the peaceful atmosphere”. They believed giving Notre Dame a modern look was the best way to show their great respect for its past and best wishes to its future， which made them take part in the competition.

The 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral was destroyed by a terrible fire in April. After the terrible loss， French President Emmanuel Macron announced an international design competition to make Notre Dame “more beautiful than before”.

The restoration plans had caused a wide and lively debate on whether to return the nearly destroyed Notre Dame to its classical appearance or to give it a modern look.

The Art Newspaper reported that a government restoration law passed by the French Parliament in July stated that Notre Dame should be restored to how it was before the fire.

In its introduction to start the competition， Go Architect said， “The future of Notre Dame should not be left to the big companies or closed-door meetings.” It said Notre Dame was “a cathedral for the people and its future should be influenced by the people”， and the competition was to “show the decision-makers that designers from all of the world should have a say”.

Whatever the result， the winning design by Cai and Li sent out another strong message to the creative world， announcing the arrival of a new generation of Chinese creative minds on the global stage.