the project chosen for the forecourt is designed “like a clearing”

The team led by the Brussels landscaper Bas Smets has been chosen to redevelop the surroundings of Notre-Dame Cathedral, which plans to densify the vegetation and highlight the facade, announced Monday, June 27 the PS mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.

Among the four finalists, it is the architecture office Bas Smets, with the architect and town planner agency GRAU and the architecture agency Neufville-Gayet which was chosen by the jury chaired by the Mayor of Paris, with representatives of the Public Establishment in charge of Notre-Dame (EPRNDP) and the Diocese of Paris.

The project provides for long tree-lined corridors around the cathedral to offer shade to visitors in times of great heat, a forecourt like a clearing surrounded by trees. HAS the town hall of Paris, it is assured that “the surface of vegetation will be increased by 36%”that “no tree would be felled”. 131 new trees should even be planted.

The surroundings and the square of Notre-Dame are transformed. The Seine and nature have a major place in the project of the Bas Smets team selected by the jury. Better highlight our beautiful cathedral to better reveal it, while respecting its history which obliges us. pic.twitter.com/giRmoCMYSg

— Anne Hidalgo (@Anne_Hidalgo) June 27, 2022

The challenge of this redevelopment will be to reinforce the vegetation around the building to cope with climate change and high temperatures. A technical device facilitating the runoff of water on the forecourt will even offer an island of freshness to visitors.

Behind the Cathedral, a square made of lawn between the apse and the Seine will provide a view of the flying buttresses and stained glass windows of the Gothic building. “A link is created with finesse between the forecourt and the Seine, it was a great expectation”, said Ariel Weil, mayor of the Paris Center sector.

In the basement, visitors will be welcomed in a car park converted into an interior walkway giving access to the archaeological crypt and an opening onto the Seine.

The city of Paris, which fully supports the project, releases an envelope of 50 million euros. With this budget, the surroundings will once again be accessible to visitors and worshipers in the second half of 2024. At the same time as the end of the cathedral construction site. The project will be definitively delivered in 2027.

Following an international consultation held in 2021, teams were selected to work on the redevelopment of the surroundings of the cathedral ravaged by fire in April 2019.

In his field (architecture/urban garden planning) Bas Smets is a rising star, already known in particular for the Parc des Ateliers around the Luma tower in Arles and as a future developer of the center of Brussels.