The Cathedral of Lausanne chooses innovative IBOIS technology

The Cathedral of Lausanne is the most visited historical monument in Switzerland, along with the Castle of Chillon, receiving more than 400'000 visitors annually. It fulfills a spiritual role including morning prayers, Sunday services, and other ecumenical ceremonies, but also hosts official activities such as the swearing in of authorities, or funerals of personalities. Last but not least, it hosts a great number of cultural offerings including screenings, concerts and shows.

The 78 new timber pews will provide 460 seats for visitors to the cathedral during ceremonies, performances, concerts, and other events. The model proposed by the office of Prof. Yves Weinand was found particularly appealing due to a technology which allows the back of the pews to be rotated in such a way as to orient them either towards the choir of the cathedral or towards the organ, opposite the nave. The backs, although made of solid oak, can be rotated by a single person, and the symmetry of the seat offers the same comfort of use regardless of the orientation of the back. These benches offer many other advantages; they can be disassembled and reassembled, which facilitates storage as well as transport, and are easy to maintain, as well as being extremely durable and more comfortable than the previous chairs, dating from 1913.

The State of Vaud also established a technology transfer contract with IBOIS to use one of the many innovative wood-wood connection techniques developed in the laboratory. The benches are therefore entirely made of timber, without any additional screws or connectors, and function through a system of clips. A bench can therefore be dismantled or reassembled by two people armed with a simple mallet in less than fifteen minutes.

If this project was chosen, it is also because it is in line with the current policy of the State Council. Indeed, it favors the use of local wood; all the new furniture of the Cathedral is made solely from oak trees harvested in Concise and Cossonay, both being forests owned and managed by the State of Vaud. After a year of locally going through a natural drying process, the manufacturing took place on the site of Sévelin. The material never went further than Neuchâtel, whereas other projects proposed to send the oaks to Eastern Europe before redirecting them to Switzerland. The will to respect a sustainable short circuit in order to support a local, circular economy was thus rigorously respected. The benches were made by the Lausanne-based company GAB Manufacture SA, in association with the French-speaking designer Thierry Didot Studio.

The public can now discover the benches at the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Lausanne.