Posted on 04/17/2019 1:16:43 PM PDT by Windflier
The good news: we have a highly-detailed digital template for how to rebuild.
From Bits to Atoms
The world watched in horror Monday night while flames tore through the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. As fire consumed the roof and toppled its iconic central spire, it seemed as though the historic church could be lost forever — but it’s possible, thanks to cutting-edge imagining technology, that all hope may not be lost.
Thanks to the meticulous work of Vassar art historian Andrew Tallon, every exquisite detail and mysterious clue to the building’s 13th-century construction was recorded in a digital archive in 2015 using laser imaging. These records have revolutionized our understanding of how the spectacular building was built — and could provide a template for how Paris could rebuild.
According to Wired, “architects now hope that Tallon’s scans may provide a map for keeping on track whatever rebuilding will have to take place.”
There are a lot of uninformed assertions being bandied about right now. Fact is, we DO have the necessary methods, materials, and skills to restore Notre Dame to its original specs.
I highly doubt that it will be rebuilt with any flammable materials. I'm thinking structural steel or composite materials for the roof members and exterior sheathing. Damaged stone and plaster elements will be replaced with the same, fabricated and installed by skilled craftsmen.
There are guilds in France that have maintained the skills and knowledge of medieval stonemasonry and other old world building trades/crafts.
Someone posted data about them on the first big Notre Dame thread.
You’re welcome, KC.
St Sophia in Istanbul was converted from a cathedral to a mosque.
But it's the 21st century. There's likely a better solution to get rid of those ugly things.
You can't do anything else on a project of this cultural significance. The world won't stand for anything less.
For sure, the builders will take this opportunity to install modern improvements like electrical service and a sprinkler system, but all of that will be invisible to the casual observer.
As Victor David Hansen has suggested, we no longer have the heart or transcendence to build such a structure.
Craftsmen back then did it out of love for their Lord and the Mother of God. People like that no longer exist in a godless Europe.
Mr. Tallon died of cancer age 49 in Nov 2018, shortly after completing his scans. Who was to know that his efforts would so soon become a legacy immortalizing his name?
Religion and attendance at church is changing greatly around the world.
Accurate or not I don’t know but some info:
Many of our nation’s churches can no longer afford to maintain their
structures—6,000 to 10,000 churches die each year in America—and
that number will likely grow. Though more than 70 percent of our
citizens still claim to be Christian, congregational participation
is less central to many Americans’ faith than it once was. Most
denominations are declining as a share of the overall population, and
donations to congregations have been falling for decades. Meanwhile,
religiously unaffiliated Americans, nicknamed the “nones,” are growing
as a share of the U.S. population.
Until they apprehend and remove the perps! Might be the best plan.
The stone...
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...is still there.
They do need some lumber. And/or steel.
Do you have the slightest idea what goes into restoring highly treasured, historical buildings? Doesn't sound like you have any idea about the process, the planning, the technologies, methods, or materials involved with such an undertaking.
Having been involved with many such projects, I can tell you that it's a painstaking process, performed with excruciating attention to detail - all of it driven by the overriding consideration that every minute detail must conform to the original, as close as is humanly possible.
When complete, Notre Dame will be just as beautiful as it ever was.
Telling me how incredible the 3-D scans are means a reasonable facsimile can be constructed but it will be a replica. Not 800 years old.
Should we restore the nose of the Sphinx?
Resurface the exteriors of the pyramids?
I agree repair Notre Dame but it will still be a reconstruction of an olde cathedral.
There was controversy when The Last Supper was ‘restored’.
With all due respect to VDH, he's wearing his heartbreak on his sleeve.
While I acknowledge the love and devotion that went into building Notre Dame, at the end of the day, it's just a building. We have the skills, technology, and the resources to put it back like it was.
you’re right about the guilds. Not only in France and western Europe, but across eastern Europe as well.
Carvings can be roughed out to precision by lazer and hand finished. Cranes to lift the heavy stuff. That France doesn’t have enough birch trees isn’t a problem in the modern world. There’s a source right here in the US for oldgrowth birch over 300 years old. These guys have a separate website, but their story is here:
https://www.katahdincedarloghomes.com/blog/recovered-timber-centuries-old-wood-takes-rustic-to-a-beautiful-level/
The biggest trick will be matching the roof load to replicate the in-out pressure on the walls and flying buttresses. And maybe using copper sheeting instead of lead?
My apologies if I caused offense.
To your point, there are probably many who feel like you do and many that like the buttresses.
As it is a historical structure, it will probably be rebuilt as it was just prior to the fire. But that is just my guess, time will tell...as it always does.
I strongly suspect that the architects and engineers will demand the use of structural steel or other high strength composites as replacement materials for framing out the roof.
The wooden support beams and related structural members were never visible from inside the cathedral, so replacing them with modern materials shouldn't violate the historical reconstruction standards and regulations that surely exist there.
It'll be interesting to see what material is finally chosen for the roof covering. You know it won't be lead. Copper is probably the next best choice.
So you’d leave it a burned-out husk. Got it.
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