From our good friend, French carpenter yogan. yogan’s work has appeared in four of our building books.

A few months ago with my friends Martin, Thomas and Orso from CopeauXcabanA, we went to the workshop where the new frame of Notre Dame de Paris was being built. All of the framing was done with oak that was 60 to 200 years old.

All the wood was squared on two sides by a sawmill and the other two by axes, following the wood fiber. They used 60 new axes that had been made by master blacksmiths.

In this workshop, 5 months of intensive axe work was necessary to square all the wood for making the framework of the choir and the apse.

Almost 800 trees were used for this part. The longest tie beam was 35×45cm (14″×18″), and 16m (52 feet) long. The largest rafter was 12 meters (40 feet) long.

In the workshop they tested all the frames before sending them to Paris, so we had the chance to climb and see this fabulous framework before it was installed in the cathedral.

Originally (900 years ago) they made all the frames in 12 years; this time it was accomplished in 1½ years.

The reconstruction of Notre Dame de Paris will be finished next summer.

Ten years ago, my friend Menthé and I sneaked into the cathedral, climbed up, took some crazy pictures before the fire!

From these experiences in this magic cathedral, we learned how to square wood with axes and we made our workshop, in CopeauXcabanA with these techniques.

copeauxcabana.fr/projets/atelier

www.davieshughes.com

LOGAN COUNTY, Okla. — A curiosity rises amid the wheat fields along rural Highway 33, which cuts through the town of Guthrie.

It’s an immense, circular building — about 15,000 square feet inside — with a domed roof topped by an ornate cupola and a copper eagle. Standing at 72 feet, it is visible for miles on the flat Oklahoma expanse.

Jay Branson is building it in his backyard. He calls it his round barn, but it’s more of a prairie cathedral.

He has been working on it for seven years. As he builds, strangers come. They pull off the highway, haul up his long driveway and stare.

Some, overcome by the beauty, have wept upon seeing the inside of the dome, with its ascending rings of interlocking diamonds and octagons that Jay cut by hand from poplar wood.

At the top is an oculus, a round opening in the roof, like in the Pantheon in Rome. When sunlight streams in, the effect is downright heavenly.

LA Times
BY HAILEY BRANSON-POTTS | STAFF WRITER
MARCH 9, 2023

Sent us by Maui Surfer

archive.is/XmYA1

This the last part of a 7-minute video titled “Shelter – A Video about author Lloyd Kahn” made by Jason Sussberg (shooting 35mm film!) in 2009, when I was 75. He shows Lesley and me doing stuff around the homestead.
Jason included a minute or so of me skateboarding, with the sound guy on his crew (a skater) skating behind me and alongside me with the heavy 35mm camera.

Then I sat on the curb (in front of my skateboard) talking about housing.

Sorry this is so blurry, Jason’s work is clear, we copied this from YouTube.

• From @lloyd.kahn’s Instagram

Hi Lloyd,

I thought of you when I saw these timbers in St. Michael’s Church, Wellington, New Zealand. These timbers are only 100 years old but look medieval. Probably built by very skilled emigré English carpenters but I don’t really know who made them.

Keep up the writing,
Bill Choquette
Wellington