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Susan Smith
Susan Smith has worked as an editor and writer in the technology industry for over 16 years. As an editor she has been responsible for the launch of a number of technology trade publications, both in print and online. Currently, Susan is the Editor of GISCafe and AECCafe, as well as those sites’ … More » The Architectural Future of Notre DameApril 25th, 2019 by Susan Smith
We experience cultural heritage loss when an ancient piece of architecture or cultural artifact is irreparably damaged, as the fire that destroyed the Gothic Notre Dame’s spire and roof. Just days before, many of the priceless statues and artifacts had been removed from the cathedral for cleaning, saving them from certain destruction.
The damage has inspired many architectural software providers to want to offer up technology toward the reconstruction of the 800-year-old cathedral. President Emmanuel Macron announced an international competition to design a new spire and roof structure, perhaps prompted by the generous private donations pledged to the effort. In the case of Notre Dame, the cathedral was 3D scanned in 2011 and 2012 by Andrew Tallon, a Vassar art professor who was a Francophile and lover of medieval architecture, particularly Gothic cathedrals. Tallon died in November of 2018, but his work may provide valuable insight into the lost parts of the cathedral structure. Just a week before the cathedral burned, a Vassar team gathered to plan the inventorying of the near terabyte of 3D modeling data that Tallon had gathered.
Funded by a foundation, Tallon used Leica Geosystems C10 and P20 scanners to accurately measure the interior and exterior of the cathedral. The resulting images produced over a billion points in point cloud data. Precision detail was about five millimeters (0.1 inches), with the final images offering up the tiniest details of the intricate structure. Tallon’s interest in Notre Dame was to “get into the minds of the builders,” according to one of his former students, Lindsay Cook, also a Francophile and a visiting assisting professor of art at Vassar. Cook said that Tallon was interested in using laser scanning to “find moments like small ruptures in the construction, places where things were not exactly right or plumb, where you could see the hand of an individual architect at work, and in that case the hand of individual masons,” according to an article in Phys Org. Fortunately, Tallon was not the only one to have digitally scanned Notre Dame. One conservation firm, Art Graphique et Patrimoine who assisted Tallon, noted that they have collected 30-50 billion data points over 25 years, largely of the spire and roof. These areas are more difficult to measure physically. While there is conjecture as to whether the reconstruction should include a new or modern spire and roof, it is interesting to note that the current spire was added by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc the 1850s, replacing the original 13th century spire that had become so damaged it was removed in 1786.  Notre Dame Exhibition before Vallon's death. According to Digital Engineering’s article by Kenneth Wong, architects and designers are understandably lining up to offer their suggestions and technologies. Dassault Systems’ CEO Bernard Charles has pledged to donate technologies to assist with the effort. Ubisoft, a game publisher, has also pledged 500,000 euros to help with the reconstruction effort. Their game Assassin’s Creed Unity features detailed 3D modeling of the Notre Dame that could be key to the rebuilding of the 800-year-old cathedral. Work with structures that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years have been catalogued with 3D scanning and digital capture before, including artifacts, monuments and museum collections, World Heritage Buildings and other ancient structures. Dr. Lori Collins, Research Associate Professor and Director at the Digital Heritage Humanities Center (DHHC), University of South Florida Libraries has prepared CAD and 3D renders for other monuments such as the Chalcatzingo Monument 22 in Mexico, 3D scanned using Geomagic software prior to a fire that burned across the entire archaeological site. They were employed right after the disaster to use their data to help. Afterwards they used 3D data during the treatment of restoration by conservators. Millimeter-level details were very helpful in the restoration work. According to Norman Foster, founder and chairman, Foster and Partners, Notre Dame was “the ultimate high technology monument of its day in terms of Gothic engineering.” The roof, now destroyed, was constructed of wooden frames that were each made from an oak tree, totaling 1,300 trees! That’s why it was named “the Forest.” Foster suggests that a new roof should employ lightweight, fireproof materials – combining the existing old with a newer more sustainable technology.
Conservative architect who specializes in historic buildings, Martin Ashley, says that the craft skills to replicate Notre Dame’s spire do exist today, in terms of roof cladding, carpentry, metalwork. But he added that “restoration is in a way, a form of destruction. In restoring buildings, you destroy the history that has gone before. What the people of Paris should now do is something of this time and this culture, and adds a new chapter to that chronology which is enshrined within the historic building fabric of the cathedral. It is an opportunity to do something which is deeply contextual, very dignified, very appropriate, very spiritual but different.” Founder and director, AL_A, Amanda Levete used as an example their extension to the Victoria & Albert Museum. “We had a responsibility to protect the building’s heritage but on the other hand to breathe new life into it and keep it relevant. That power of difference is not a modern idea.” www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed-unity http://pages.vassar.edu/antallon/the-structure-of-gothic/ Tags: 3D, 3D printing, AEC, architects, architecture, BIM, building design, Cloud, construction, design, engineering, engineers, generative design, infrastructure, Notre Dame, point clouds, reality capture, visualization Categories: 3D, AEC, AECCafe, architecture, BIM, Cloud, collaboration, construction, construction project management, convergence, engineering, infrastructure, lidar, mobile, point clouds, project management, reality capture, rendering, simulation, site planning, sustainable design |
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