Staying true to Notre-Dame de Paris
Edition January 2024
The Talks — Hall 7
Description
After a fire that took the world by surprise, how can Notre-Dame de Paris stay true to the historical monument it is and the symbols it stands for? Meet Belgian architect and landscape artist Bas Smets, who won the competition to rethink the cathedral’s exterior spaces; sculptor Guillaume Bardet who is in charge of creating the liturgical furniture; and designer Ionna Vautrin who will design and craft a new chair, produced in 1500 copies. A conversation with three creative minds whose work will stand the test of time.
Participants
Guillaume BardetSculptor & Designer
Bas SmetsLandscape Architect & Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Ionna VautrinIndustrial designer
Clara Le FortJournalist
Guillaume Bardet
Sculptor & Designer
After having graduated from the renowned École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris, in 1999, Guillaume Bardet started his career as a designer during his residency at the Villa Medicis in Rome. There, he received a grant from the French Academy in Rome which allowed him to realize his first major project: “Mobilier Immobile”, composed of nine very large pieces in marble. While continuing to design furniture, he began to work in the field of interior architecture and urban planning, acquiring experience that he would later pass on as a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI), in Paris, beginning in 2005. Bardet is a man of great projects. After “Mobilier Immobile » at the Villa Medicis, Bardet embarked on his ambitious project “l’Usage des jours”: for a year, Bardet drew an object per day, and as an extension of this experience, he ensured its realization, the following year, with a dozen potters. 365 ceramic objects were thus created. The adventure “L’Usage des jours” was praised by the Bettencourt Foundation in October 2011: Bardet received the Prize of the intelligence of the hand for his creative work. This project has traveled throughout Europe: to Sèvres – Cité de la céramique in Sèvres, France, to the Grand-Hornu in Belgium, to the Château des Adhémar – Centre d’art contemporain in Montélimar, France, and to the Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Arts (Mudac) in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2013, he began teaching at the National School of Decorative Arts (EnsAD) in Paris, and became a frequent collaborator at Hermès, designing a collection of objects for their Home Fragrance line, and becoming the Educational Director for their Foundation in 2015. Since autumn 2015, Bardet has devoted himself fully to his project « La fabrique du présent », the first chapter of which was shown in autumn 2017 at Le Corbusier’s iconic building near Lyon, Le Couvent de la Tourette. In April 2019, Bardet embarked on his first collaboration with Galerie kreo. The exhibition displayed a collection of pieces made entirely of bronze: a very long oblong table with uneven feet and a smooth table top, a large pendant light, a free-shaped coffee table, a slender bench, and a series of anthropomorphic stools.
Bas Smets
Landscape Architect & Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Bas Smets has a background in landscape architecture, civil engineering, and architecture. He founded his firm in Brussels in 2007 and has since completed more than 50 projects in 12 countries. His realised projects include the Luma Parc des Ateliers in Arles and the park of Thurn & Taxis in Brussels. In 2022 he won the international competition for Les Abords de Notre-Dame in Paris. Each of these projects is part of an interrelated research into the possible role and ambition of landscape projects. He was appointed Professor in Practice at Harvard University in 2023. With his design studio he explores new ways to make cities more resilient to changes in climate, using the logic of nature.
Ionna Vautrin
Industrial designer
Graduated from l'école de design Nantes Atlantique in 2002, Ionna Vautrin has worked successively for Camper in Spain, for George J. Sowden in Italy and for Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec in France. She opened her design studio in January 2011 after receiving the Grand Prize of the creation of Paris. She collaborate with differents brands and editors like Foscarini, Moustache, Kvadrat, Sancal, Lexon, Serralunga, SNCF, JCDecaux, Monoprix... Her work is a meeting between industry and poetry. She draws everyday objects whose ambition is to be simple and obvious but surprising. These projects offer a gentle and generous presence, organic and geometric shapes, a cheerful and colorful spirit, an intuitive and functional usage. In 2014 she received the Compasso d'Oro prize for Binic lamp, published by Foscarini in 2010. In 2017, she created, at the request of the SNCF, the lamp for the TGV Atlantique. A domestic version is quickly developed in co-publishing with Moustache, becoming the first object of a French train published for the general public. In June 2023, Ionna is entrusted with the creation of the chairs which will welcome the faithful to Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris when it reopens.
Clara Le Fort
Journalist
A writer for French and international publications (Les Echos WE, Le Point, ELLE, ELLE DECO, Bllnr), Clara Le Fort deals with subjects related to luxury, innovation and sustainable development. She also works with brands on strategic matters, as a design director. In addition, she has authored five books, published by Gestalten, and has written the Louis Vuitton City Guide for Sydney, Istanbul, Copenhagen and Arles.