Notre Dame Cathedral
 

!!!! At least they saved more than expected, just a fantastic building with stunning stained glass, especially the rose windows.

Aye, that's a bit of relief there that they didn't lost the entire structure. It will be restored, I'm sure!!

Being an art and architecture historian I have always sort of looked a little askance at the notre dame in the same way I might at the mona lisa because they are not the seminal works they are made out to be
And now when it´s burning I found that I don´t really care about that it strikes me in the heart and even though I don´t care for standing in the lines to go in I have never missed enjoying the exterior whenever I´m in paris

I didn´t know I loved it until it was to late

I sure hope so. Build it to make another 800 years of history!

At first I thought it was the place where that world famous artist painted the ceiling, and that would have been tragic. But then I found out it is a cathedral, famous for architecture but not for artwork on the ceiling. I mean, I knew Notre Dame was a college football team, but didn't really know about it, besides that. (I know I know - I'm a typical dumb insular and only focused on my country American :biggrin:) Anyway, hopefully they will find out if it was arson and get the person or persons responsible if it was deliberate.

If it was an accident, that is a shame. I don't know if they can rebuild it as well as the people who were master craftsman and such back when it was built.

It will be okay
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4OVTtXW0AEyg1z.png:large

The fact that the building was saved more than they thought and nobody was hurt in the process of putting out the fire is amazing and I'm really happy to know that.

Yes, hopefully this will be reparable. Many great cathedrals have been badly fire damaged, and survived. I like visiting cathedrals and castles and such, and it's very common to hear, for example, that it's all the original structure expect for the west tower, which was destroyed in the fire. Hopefully it will be restored to its full glory.

Well, the first pictures from the inside do show that parts of the vaulted ceiling have indeed collapsed, which is likely to be a major concern as they go about securing what is left. But still, it could have been much worse. Had the bells (which rest on wooden beams as well) fallen, they would probably have torn down the towers as well. Not to mention the risk of injury and death to the firecrews as well as the crowds that were still inside when it started…

And yet it is strange to think that those oak beams that have been in place over Paris for eight hundred years are gone. Structures such as Notre Dame were there long before we were born and are supposed to still be here long after we are gone, and remind us, independently of religious affiliation, that our lives are tied into a greater narrative.

This architectural marvel is pretty much impossible to build today the same way as noone knows how it was made without armored concrete. In other words, this cathedral is impossible to exist yet it does.
Early plans of restoration what's lost are of course based on armed concrete. The problem? Noone can know if it'll shake the overall static.

Nothing can stand the test of time of course, but there is something else to note. Ingenious builders of this structure of which some never saw it finished (it took almost 200 years to complete it) knew about wooden logs fire risks and while parts of the cathedral are now destroyed the overall structure is still intact.

This building is a prime example of what's humanity capable of when not wasting lives on stupid wars and news about mass murderers. It survived two world wars, here's hope it won't be lost in the third one.

Probably nothing more than idle speculation, but it would be cool nevertheless: Assassin’s Creed Unity could help rebuild Notre Dame.

On a side note ancient construction methods are interesting to read about. I just finished a tv and book series about Roman architecture. It was fascinating.

The fun part was watching engineers figure it out with modern systems.

The architects of these cathedrals went unnamed because they wanted to give glory to God. This is also true of their famous gargoyles - one artist was commissioned all over Europe.

One expert claims it could take 20-40 years to fully repair the church.

Link - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/notre-d…take-40-years/

There has been at least one major study on how one of the great cathedrals was built that may be of interest. The book is called "The Master Masons of Chatres" by John James.

Macron says it will take five, which sounds crazy, but it depends on how many people are working on it at the same time. Plus they aren't even close to evaluating all the damage yet.

5 is highly optimistic. Regardless of people and money invested, I don't think it can be done is such short time. 20-40 as @Couchpotato suggested above is more probable.

Five years is way too optimistic, even if they closed the access to it and got a maximum amount of experts working on it. It's something to say for people to stay optimistic. About 20 years sounds about right if nothing goes wrong.

I think it's possible. York Minster was burnt out in 1984, and reopened in 1988. I believe the damage in Paris is worse, and my guess would be 5 - 10 years. Apparently one of the factors that slows down these projects is that there are a limited number of people in the world with the proper skills and experience. But I think France will pull out all the stops for this one.

More likely on how it is done.

4 years is already a huge worksite to fund and maintain. Using the techniques they used in the past is no longer sustainable.

They had not a market economy in those days and funding 50 years of wood cutting as material for the wood work was doable. Today, with the consumption, people will not even be sure they got access to wood for 50 years.

If they just put a corrugated iron roof on it and called it a day it would be finished in a few weeks and they would save a couple of billion dollars :)

Iron is too heavy for this kind of structure. An alternative might be aluminium.
Saving money is not the goal.

It will be better than it was before!!! Better……stronger……faster!!!

Plastic composite roofing and 3d printed interior. Guaranteed to last at least 10 years.

I'm not so sure about this. Cologne Cathedral has a steel roof framework and some say that's the reason why it was still standing after it was hit by dozens of bombs during WW2. The Vienna cathedral had its wooden framework replaced with steel after it burnt down in 1945. And if I'm not mistaken, Chartres Cathedral also had its wooden framework replaced with a metal one.

In related news: Ubisoft is giving away Assassin's Creed Unity for free.

I don't think steel, steel reinforcement or any iron is the answer. Iron rusts and needs to be maintained. The iron in steel reinforced concrete attracts water and breaks down the concrete.

Carbon fibre is your answer.

Also, a thing like this needs to be made with love and the builders I expect will be devoted to God and not just to France.

It will be caught up in some of the same politics as the World Trade Center (why is there only one tower?) but I think devotion will prevail in this case. And not just something old.

The shock I had when reading / hearing the news was in my place much like 911. I mean, it's one of the most well-known buildings of the world !

So, I'm now so glad that it can be restored again.




(And glad that we Germans didn't bomb it in WWII.)

A roof of glass with trees, that is how Vincent Callebaut, architect, sees the new Notre-Dame:
http://vincent.callebaut.org/object/…/projects/user

I like it!

That is sacrilege as it should be restored to what it originally was. Just imagine if someone destroyed the statue of liberty and a wood/glass replica was put in it's place.

Damn philistines.:p

I'd say that's currently in progress. :p

Metaphorically maybe but not physically.

The old house of glass metaphor.

I want be Nero playing a fiddle to see it ends.:biggrin:

https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qim…a7a6d10a2bc13b

Afaik the roof (and its design) was not that old (19th century?)
If it were the original I’d say restore it. But now…

Put some wooden planks over it, and it'will do. The Lord will provide protection! :P

I would prefer to see it restored to how it looked before the incident. Then again, I'm often on the wrong side of things.