Vietnam-based Bay Huynh Architects have created a proposal for an urban waterway as a new rooftop for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Designed to explore the value of faith and society, the proposal comes after the Notre Dame fire in April this year. Called the Flowing Fish, the project aims to break the traditional notion of a church to create a "new ecosystem" for worship.
As Bay Huynh describes, the team sees the church as a home for everyone, a place that does not belong to any individual, agency or organization. As a place to witness miracles and come together, the project was made to reshape the traditional values of faith by opening up the design. They explain that, "the primary values of faith are only increasingly serving individual interests. The entire roof will be an open space designed with functions as a home where we can connect, not only inside, but also outside the church under a roof of the heaven for everyone."
The project is made as an intersection of internal and external traffic through the open-roof and "flowing-fish lines" that continually expand around the project. As the team states, depending on the seasons and occasions, these flowing-lines can be transformed into different purposes: a place for visiting the church by following downstream on boats and taking a panorama view of Paris from above, a place to enjoy the sun and outdoor activities, a place to discover Paris from high above, and a place for art performance activities, among other functions. The Flowing Fish proposal would create a "church that will no longer be limited to the framework of visible walls and roofs."
Architects: Bay Huynh Architects
Lead Architect: Huynh Thanh Nha
News via Bay Huynh Architects
