On 15 April 2019, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, in Paris, was severely damaged by a fire that was extinguished after 15 hours. As consequence the cathedral’s wood-and-lead spire and the roof were destroyed, together with several works of art. However the stone vaulted ceiling below the roof saved great part of the interior, by preventing the fire to spread too extensively.
While it took 181 years (1163-1344) to build the Cathedral, we almost lost it in less than one day. Notre-Dame is the symbol of Paris and this event shocked France and the entire world.
The French President Emmanuel Macron promised that
Notre Dame will be rebuilt in five years, more beautiful than before
and the fundraising campaign in support of this raised €800 million in just 24 hours.
Can we really reconstruct the Cathedral in just 5 years?
There’s a chance we can make it through a forefront imaging technology. The art historian Andrew Tallon was very passionate about Notre Dame. He did a full laser scan of the building with the assistance of his colleague Paul Blaer.
Tallon and Blaer’s laser data consist of 1 billion data points, which create a very accurate 3-D model. Therefore we now have a full digital detailed re-creation of the building that we can use as base to start the reconstruction. In the video below, Tallon explains how they created the 3D model.
Cutting-edge technologies are changing the way we design and build.
Which one are you using?
