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Breaking: Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on fire

vrDrew said:
Terribly sad day for Paris, and the world.

Trying to keep some positive perspective on this. Cathedrals like Notre Dame are typically made out of stone, which can usually survive a fire pretty well. Notre Dame had been undergoing a very extensive renovation, which is - sadly - often a recipe for disaster. Welding torches and thousand-year-old wood ceilings are a bad mix.
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It is horrible tragedy.

Stone cannot carry load under tension, so tension members such as roof trusses were made of wood. Without the support of wood, the stone falls.
 
Doctor Q said:
Fast-foward a decade or two and this is what might happen:

A historic building burned today. Within hours, using millions of crowdsourced photos and videos, the former visible structure was modeled, inside and out. As soon as the debris is cleared, the building will be 3D printed and look exactly as it did before.​

Then again, we'd need 3D printers that use stone and brick and wood as their raw materials. Otherwise, people might not consider it to be a proper restoration.

In the meantime, let's hope the Notre Dame restoration that's sure to come will be faster than the 1844 restoration, which took 20 years.
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The cathedral was laser-scanned not that long ago, to 5mm resolution.
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...will-never-be-the-same-but-it-can-be-rebuilt/


Also, a technical point: 3D printers are additive in nature. That is, they build things by adding a raw material until the desired shape is reached. This may involve various transformations to the raw material, such as sintering or fusing of powders, or light-induced effects, such as hardening of liquid resins by a guided UV laser. There's also the simple and popular transformation of melting and solidifying.

Conversely, working in stone, brick, or wood is a subtractive process, which means the starting material has more substance than is desired, and the unwanted parts are removed (subtracted) until the desired shape is reached. That's a much older process called "machining", at least when machines do it. It's also called sculpting or carving when humans do it with simpler tools.
 
Truly devistating news. It would be tragic to lose such a piece of history. I comment the French firefighters in controlling the fire and saving as much as possible, especially the firefighter who has sustained severe injuries. I’m glad to hear there were to fatalities.

It’s coincidental moments prior to seeing this travesty on the news I was watching a short video about the US National Archieves film vault fire in 1978. 28 million feet of priceless historic film from 1941-1944 (including a bunch of never released WWII footage including the Pearl Harbor attack) was lost as more than half the vaults burned. The cause of the fire was related to the extremely volatile nitrate film media. It’s extremely sad to see irreplaceable history vanish in an instant. I’m relieved much of Notre Dame was preserved.
 
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As sad as it is at least lives haven’t been lost. I’m
glad I saw it before France rebuild a reproduction of it which will never be the same. France have pledged to fund a rebuild already so their homeless and poverty issues like any countries will have to wait for now.
 
chown33 said:
The cathedral was laser-scanned not that long ago, to 5mm resolution.
https://arstechnica.com/science/201...will-never-be-the-same-but-it-can-be-rebuilt/


Also, a technical point: 3D printers are additive in nature. That is, they build things by adding a raw material until the desired shape is reached. This may involve various transformations to the raw material, such as sintering or fusing of powders, or light-induced effects, such as hardening of liquid resins by a guided UV laser. There's also the simple and popular transformation of melting and solidifying.

Conversely, working in stone, brick, or wood is a subtractive process, which means the starting material has more substance than is desired, and the unwanted parts are removed (subtracted) until the desired shape is reached. That's a much older process called "machining", at least when machines do it. It's also called sculpting or carving when humans do it with simpler tools.
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From 2014:


and it's French.
 
Selfish thing to say but I'm so glad I have been there a couple of times. It will take decades and the best part of a billion dollars to fix that.
 
TheFluffyDuck said:
It will take decades and the best part of a billion dollars to fix that.
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I would look to the rebuilding of the Dresden Frauenkirche as a reason for cautious optimism for Notre Dame.

The Lutheran Frauenkirche was almost totally obliterated in the Allied firebombing of Dresden in 1945 (an event immortalised in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five). The main structure of the Church collapsed in a heap of charred rubble.

2.jpg


During the East German era there was talk of totally clearing the site. But the German people and Church resisted this idea. Following reunification there was worldwide effort to rebuild, and today the Frauenkirche looks like this:

frauenkirche.jpg


(Note: The dark "speckled" stones are those that were salvaged from the rubble. Fire damage and all.)

The damage to Notre Dame is a fraction of what the Frauenkirche underwent. And Notre Dame is a world-famous monument and Catholic place of worship. I think it is certainly plausible that within a few years it may be restored to even greater glory.
 
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vrDrew said:
I would look to the rebuilding of the Dresden Frauenkirche as a reason for cautious optimism for Notre Dame.
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Well I just read they got all their relics and a-lot of the art out, so that is good news. That before and after is stunning. Lets hope :)
 
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/on-the-once-and-future-notre-dame.html

The challenge now is not whether to rebuild but how. Contemporary technology can help reproduce antique techniques, but it can’t answer a more philosophical question: If the charred pile that greets Tuesday’s dawn is After, then what, precisely, is Before? Surely not the status quo on Monday afternoon, a brittle church of cards already in danger of collapse. Maybe the version that Viollet-le-Duc signed off on in 1864, though that would mean ignoring the many scholars who have criticized his work as fanciful and ahistorical. Which patchings-up get reproduced, and which erased? Should ancient crafts be updated with computer-guided stone-cutting equipment, or tiny shards of glass be microscopically reassembled? Does it make sense to reapply pigments that once gave sculptures a polychrome glow but later faded away, or to wipe away not just yesterday’s layers of ash but also decades’ worth of patina, and scrape right down to pale stone? In 2014, the critic Martin Filler visited Chartres cathedral after a restoration so energetic that he found the results horrifying, “like some funeral parlor in Little Italy.”

These are not new polemics. Even as the renovation of Notre-Dame was under way in the mid-1800s, the architectural sage John Ruskin wrote that the restoration was a form of betrayal. The word “signifies the most complete destruction that an edifice can suffer … It is impossible, as impossible as it is to bring the dead back to life, to restore whatever might have been grand or beautiful in architecture … The enterprise is a lie from the beginning to the end.”
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While these places need to be renovated to stop them collapsing getting the builders in (even specialists) seems hugely risky for many of these old buildings. I'm surprised there isn't more oversight. The Cutty Sark (a wooden ship) recently caught fire due to a faulty builders vacuum while it was being rennovated and I think the famous Windsor castle fire started in a room where renovations were being carried out (a spotlight and a curtain?).
 
scubachap said:
I think the famous Windsor castle fire started in a room where renovations were being carried out (a spotlight and a curtain?).
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Officially. ;)
Though there are persistent rumours the real cause was a certain individual's two-bar electric fire…

:p

upload_2019-4-16_10-49-23.png


PS. This is not Photoshopped… the queen is notorious for her electric fires…
 
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Building and artifact status, according to a number of sites I checked:

Spire and roof: destroyed

Facade and twin bell towers: survived

Stone construction: saved

Relics of St. Denis and St. Geneviève: apparently destroyed

Crown of Thorns: rescued using a human chain, sent to Paris City Hall

Tunic of Saint Louis: saved, sent to Paris City Hall

Main "Emanuelle" bell: saved

The other 9 bells: status unknown

Three Rose windows: apparently saved, although some of the welded lead may have melted

Great Organ: conflicting reports ranging from "saved" to "quite affected" to "severely damaged"

True Cross fragment: saved

Holy Nail: saved

Gallery of the Kings statues: unknown status

Various other sculptures and statues: unknown status

Mays de Notre Dame paintings: smoke damage, no fire damage, sent to the Louvre's storage facility to be conserved

Various other paintings, including "Saint Thomas Aquinas, Fountain of Wisdom" and "The Visitation": unknown status, may have water damage

Exterior gargoyles, chimeras, flying buttresses, archaeological crypt: unknown status

Statues of the 12 Apostles: had already been removed for the renovation​
 
If I'm reading this right, it could be Gamers to the Rescue, thanks to a rather unexpected source: Assassin's Creed: Unity.

https://www.unilad.co.uk/gaming/how...ebuilt-with-the-help-of-assassins-creed-unity

How Notre Dame Could Be Rebuilt With The Help Of Assassin’s Creed: Unity
BY : EWAN MOORE

As you’ve probably heard by now, the iconic Notre Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire last night (Monday, April 15), causing the roof and spire to collapse.

The building is over 800 years old, and has been a huge part of French culture and history. For comparison, it’s closest rival – the Eiffel tower – is only 132 years old, so you have an idea of just how important Notre Dame truly is to the people of France, and the world.

While this is an undoubtedly heartbreaking scenario, efforts to rebuild are already being put into action, and the damage could have been much worse than it ended up being as the blaze has now been fully extinguished.

The building will be restored as closely as possible to how it was before the fire, meaning that builders and architects involved with the project will be studying a number of photos and videos of the cathedral to recreate it as faithfully and as carefully as possible.

Help is coming from all over the world, and one unexpected source of information is said to be Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed: Unity.

As you may know, Unity is set in Paris, 1789, and features a truly stunning recreation of Notre Dame cathedral. It’s this incredibly carefully put together digital version of the building that could prove invaluable to its ultimate restoration.

A new report from GPS World, has now suggested that detailed 3D maps such as the one in Assassin’s Creed: Unity will play a role in the restoring of Notre Dame to its former glory.

While we might not have expected Assassin’s Creed to emerge as an unlikely hero in the rebuilding effort, it does make a lot of sense; Ubisoft tend not to mess around when it comes to recreating cities and landmarks in their games, and its version of Notre Dame may just be its finest work to date.

Unity artist Caroline Miousse, told The Verge a while back that Ubisoft’s version of Notre Dame was easily the biggest building in the game, and that she spent ‘literally years fussing over the details of the building’.

Miousse apparently obsessed over old photos to get everything just right, and even worked with texture artists to ensure that ‘each brick was as it should be’.

We’ve reached out to Ubisoft for comment and will be sure to update the article if we hear back.
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If true, then holy smeg.

BL.
 
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Doctor Q said:
Building and artifact status, according to a number of sites I checked:

Spire and roof: destroyed

Facade and twin bell towers: survived

Stone construction: saved

Relics of St. Denis and St. Geneviève: apparently destroyed

Crown of Thorns: rescued using a human chain, sent to Paris City Hall

Tunic of Saint Louis: saved, sent to Paris City Hall

Main "Emanuelle" bell: saved

The other 9 bells: status unknown

Three Rose windows: apparently saved, although some of the welded lead may have melted

Great Organ: conflicting reports ranging from "saved" to "quite affected" to "severely damaged"

True Cross fragment: saved

Holy Nail: saved

Gallery of the Kings statues: unknown status

Various other sculptures and statues: unknown status

Mays de Notre Dame paintings: smoke damage, no fire damage, sent to the Louvre's storage facility to be conserved

Various other paintings, including "Saint Thomas Aquinas, Fountain of Wisdom" and "The Visitation": unknown status, may have water damage

Exterior gargoyles, chimeras, flying buttresses, archaeological crypt: unknown status

Statues of the 12 Apostles: had already been removed for the renovation​
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After seeing some pics of the inside and hearing what artifacts have been saved or not damaged - ******* miracle. That entire cathedral could have burned to the ground by all rights. Amazing. Near to tears seeing how much has been saved.
 
France will launch an international architecture competition for a new spire.

The coq has been found, apparently restorable. They still have to check regarding the 3 relics that were inside.
 
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Well done, AFR/KLM. Well done.

https://www.airlive.net/air-france-...n-the-reconstruction-of-notre-dame-cathedral/

Air France-KLM will offer free flights for all official partners involved in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame Cathedral
By Melanie Kraft and Airlive Contributors
April 17, 2019

In a statement, Air France-KLM pledged support for the rebuilding of the ancient cathedral.

The company said: “All Air France and Air France-KLM teams around the world have been deeply affected and saddened since yesterday.”

In an effort to help restore the symbol of French history, the airline group announced that it would “provide free transport for all official partners involved in the reconstruction.”

In addition, the airline group will also be setting up a voluntary donations fund for any customers who want to help finance the reconstruction efforts in Paris. Details on how to contribute to the fund are still being finalised.
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BL.
 
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