“Perhaps most controversial is a proposal in Domus, the architecture magazine, by Tom Wilkinson, for the fallen spire to be replaced with an Islamic minaret, to memorialise Algerians who protested the French government in the 1960s.
“These victims of the state could be memorialised by replacing [the spire] with – why not? – a graceful minaret,” Wilkinson insisted.
Steel and glass would certainly be more fire resistant than wood.
Weird how this stuff follows like clockwork.
Remember the Flight 93 memorial proposal? Did they actually implement that or did saner minds prevail?
I knew they would demand to rebuild it as a mosque from the minaret the fire started.
Keep anyone who has every said any positive word about “post-modern” away from the rebuilding.
They might as well contact South of the Border if they want to do tourist traps the right way.
Would they say the same thing if it were the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem that burned down?
-PJ
Minarets? I guess you have to put the bathrooms somewhere. That way they would easy to find.
Restoration of the classic crafts and religious veneration that inspired the Cathedral’s construction seems no longer possible in much of Christendom today.
Absent some massive pushback against islam and a restoration of Christian faith, seems becomes is.
I can’t believe it would be possible to convey the spirit of the French people without a minaret or two./
France has too many modernists who have no respect for history. Take the Louver for example. That glass entrance is just weird. Notre Dame is a church. But what it is uniquely, is a great historic example of the beginning of Gothic as it emerges from Romanesque. Strasbourg Cathedral is Gothic. Toulouse Cathedral is Romanesque. Notre Dame is the most beautiful continuing use structure which fits between the two.
The spire can go. It never has to be rebuilt. And if it is rebuild it does not matter what they do. The spire did not fit the rest of the structure. The spire was modern. At least it was modern compared to the rest of the building. So losing it was no big deal. The spire showed up 500 years after the rest of the Cathedral. Look back at it. Its a high Gothic little thing that was both out of proportion and out of style from the rest of the structure. Thankfully it was in the middle and out of view from the front. And was only in the background from the back. The french modernists of the time wanted to modernize their cathedral and make it more Gothic.
Going ahead and putting on the Islamic accouterments now would certainly save money and bother when it is converted after Merkel declares the Islamic State of Europe.
carbon fibre
That's what burning Harvard would feel like.
I love reading about architecture, but too many of the architects have no tact these days. Just fix it as it was. Instead of applying fads, reconnect with the skills of the people that built it. This is a massive opportunity!
This should have thousands applying for the educational opportunities alone. Certainly the few craftspeople left will have a job for life, and the ability to take on apprentices
Know why those stained glass windows light up?
Cuz it’s dark inside; they’re the brightest things.
If you bring in a ton of competing light, those will be washed out. It won’t look pretty.
During summer you’ll also have to air condition like crazy.
Perhaps by observing what they choose to honor in its reconstruction, and why, we will understand why Notre Dame was allowed to be destroyed by fire in the first place.
Is this a “Here’s your sign” kind of thing or just another day here in paradise?
Make it as close to the original as possible, no one will go to see modernist crap.
What a sick, twistedd, and evil thing to even think. Let alone say.