Jean-Pierre Houdin
Encyclopedia
Jean-Pierre Houdin is a French architect perhaps most notable for a theory
on pyramid
construction.
Houdin was born in Paris in 1951, but he grew up in Abidjan
, in Africa, where his father was the director of a construction company. As a small boy, he spent his spare time on construction sites while his mother, who was a doctor, cared for her patients in a bush dispensary. His interest in building and construction grew out of this first period of his life.
under the aegis of the Fondation EDF. Professor Huy Duong Bui showed them plans on which they discovered what they saw as a construction anomaly which earlier hypotheses could not account for. This anomaly, baptised “the spiral structure”, looked exactly like a ramp built inside the pyramid which could have played a part in its construction. In 2003, his father created the Association of the Construction of the Great Pyramid (ACGP) in order to promote the project. This association enabled him to meet a number of experts.
invited him to join a new sponsorship programme “Passion For Innovation”. Together, they decided to examine the theory in the light of Dassault Systèmes’ industrial and scientific 3D solutions. Using software applications such as CATIA
to reconstitute the site of this gigantic construction in three dimensions allowed them to test in real-time whether such an approach was plausible. In order to explain and communicate it, Tayoubi and his team used 3D technology as a teaching medium and proposed an interactive voyage through time in three dimensions, both on the giant screen of La Géode
(a famous hemispheric theater in Paris), and on the Internet. They transformed this theater into the biggest Virtual Reality center of the world.
The same year Houdin, the Egyptologist Bob Brier
, Tayoubi and Breitner with a team of engineers of Dassault Systèmes decided to analyse the King’s Chamber cracks with software normally used by industrial corporations to simulate the behaviour of their products in operation and to detect any structural weaknesses in order to solve problems as early as the design phase (SIMULIA).
The team concluded that the pyramid’s architect, Hemiunu, concerned that the cracks imperiled the whole structure, cut a tunnel into a sealed space above the burial chamber to assess the damage, and filled the cracks with plaster as a “tell-tale” that would indicate if they were widening. The beams held and the pyramid was completed. The existence of the cracks in the burial chamber beams has been known since the 1880s, but the team is the first to put forward a hypothesis about what caused them and when and to use such a methodology with 3D industrial software in Egyptology.
Egyptian pyramid construction techniques
There have been many hypotheses about the Egyptian pyramid construction techniques. These techniques seem to have developed over time; later pyramids were not built the same way as earlier ones. Most of the construction hypotheses are based on the idea that huge stones were carved with copper...
on pyramid
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact...
construction.
Houdin was born in Paris in 1951, but he grew up in Abidjan
Abidjan
Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...
, in Africa, where his father was the director of a construction company. As a small boy, he spent his spare time on construction sites while his mother, who was a doctor, cared for her patients in a bush dispensary. His interest in building and construction grew out of this first period of his life.
Studies and early years
Back in Paris, after the baccalauréat, he enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts to study architecture. After obtaining his diploma in 1976, he set up as an independent architect, a profession that he would follow for twenty years. He participated in the construction of a large number of residential and office buildings in and around Paris. At the same time, with his wife Michelle and a friend of his, he opened an avant-garde art gallery and salon (“Les Enfants Gâtés”), which over a period of ten years supported scores of young artists, and which became a centre for the arts in Paris at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s.Pyramid construction theory
In 1999 Houdin's father, a retired civil engineer, started to develop the idea that the pyramids had been built from the inside. He asked his son, who had experience both in architecture and in three-dimensional graphics, to assist him in his research. During 2000, they met with members of the team who, in 1986, had worked on the mystery of the Pyramid of KhufuKhufu
Khufu , also known as Cheops or, in Manetho, Suphis , was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC. Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of...
under the aegis of the Fondation EDF. Professor Huy Duong Bui showed them plans on which they discovered what they saw as a construction anomaly which earlier hypotheses could not account for. This anomaly, baptised “the spiral structure”, looked exactly like a ramp built inside the pyramid which could have played a part in its construction. In 2003, his father created the Association of the Construction of the Great Pyramid (ACGP) in order to promote the project. This association enabled him to meet a number of experts.
Calculating the theory
In 2005, Mehdi Tayoubi and Richard Breitner from Dassault SystèmesDassault Systemes
Dassault Systèmes S.A. is a leading company specializing in 3D and PLM software.Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM application software and services that support industrial processes and provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling...
invited him to join a new sponsorship programme “Passion For Innovation”. Together, they decided to examine the theory in the light of Dassault Systèmes’ industrial and scientific 3D solutions. Using software applications such as CATIA
CATIA
CATIA is a multi-platform CAD/CAM/CAE commercial software suite developed by the French company Dassault Systemes...
to reconstitute the site of this gigantic construction in three dimensions allowed them to test in real-time whether such an approach was plausible. In order to explain and communicate it, Tayoubi and his team used 3D technology as a teaching medium and proposed an interactive voyage through time in three dimensions, both on the giant screen of La Géode
La Géode
La Géode is an Omnimax theatre in the Parc de la Villette at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. It opened on May 6, 1985. It is fitted with the only 12.1 sound system in the world, designed by Cabasse...
(a famous hemispheric theater in Paris), and on the Internet. They transformed this theater into the biggest Virtual Reality center of the world.
The same year Houdin, the Egyptologist Bob Brier
Bob Brier
Robert Brier , also known as Mr. Mummy, is an American Egyptologist specializing in paleopathology. A Senior Research Fellow at the C.W...
, Tayoubi and Breitner with a team of engineers of Dassault Systèmes decided to analyse the King’s Chamber cracks with software normally used by industrial corporations to simulate the behaviour of their products in operation and to detect any structural weaknesses in order to solve problems as early as the design phase (SIMULIA).
The team concluded that the pyramid’s architect, Hemiunu, concerned that the cracks imperiled the whole structure, cut a tunnel into a sealed space above the burial chamber to assess the damage, and filled the cracks with plaster as a “tell-tale” that would indicate if they were widening. The beams held and the pyramid was completed. The existence of the cracks in the burial chamber beams has been known since the 1880s, but the team is the first to put forward a hypothesis about what caused them and when and to use such a methodology with 3D industrial software in Egyptology.
Books published
- Khufu: The Secrets Behind the Building of the Great Pyramid by Jean-Pierre Houdin, ISBN 978-9771730613, Farid Atiya Press, 2006.
- The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How One Man's Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypt's Greatest Mystery by Bob Brier & Jean-pierre Houdin, ISBN 978-0061655524 Collins 2008.
External links
- How to build a pyramid Bob Brier's article in Archeology
- Khufu Revealed Jean-Pierre Houdin's theory step by step in real-time 3D
- USA Today Article Scientists ramp up for pyramid theory
- Smithsonian article Monumental Shift
- Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room? National Geographic news
- Jean-Pierre Houdin association ACGP