If in every disaster hides an opportunity, the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris on April 15, 2019 is no exception to the rule.

This is an opportunity for the city of Paris to rethink the surroundings of the cathedral.

"Showing it off better to reveal it better" is Anne Hidalgo's credo.

In this quest for the “better”, the city councilor has also given himself the mission of “together”.

As of May 2021, the City of Paris has initiated a process of dialogue with Parisians and French people.

In order to reveal their expectations, the town hall has given itself six months to listen to “site actors, local residents and traders, Parisians, Greater Parisians and Ile-de-France residents, and visitors”.

At the same time, a commission was set up made up of 20 citizens drawn by lot.

While the City received proposals after its call for tenders, this citizens' commission had the task of analyzing the projects and selecting them.

"A place of destination for Parisians"

It was the landscape architect Bas Smets who was selected by the citizens' commission.

With the architectural agencies GRAU and Neufville-Gayet, Bas Smets intends to reveal "the quality of each place" but also to rethink this environment "from the double angle of the collective and the climate".

The forecourt of the cathedral, as well as its backyard, are designed to become "a place of destination for Parisians", confirms the City of Paris.

The car park nestled under Notre-Dame is not immune to transformations either.

It becomes an interior promenade with new access to the archaeological crypt and an opening onto the Seine.

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Notre-Dame de Paris: How the capital wants to "magnify" the surroundings of the cathedral

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  • Paris

  • Ile-de-France

  • Notre Dame of Paris

  • Church

  • Town planning