The fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris last week stunned and devastated many people around the world. I know that I was among millions watching, bewildered, as the spire toppled and the rest of the building suffered significant damage. I wondered, as I suspect many others did, “How could this happen in the 21st century?”
While the modern era wasn’t able to totally save the cathedral, it will be able to use its immense technological resources to rebuild it. In fact, technology will likely play a very large role in its reconstruction…and in some unexpected ways.
- Can ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Help Rebuild Notre Dame? [ArtNet News] “In the wake of the disaster, there has been much talk about how digital technologies could aid the reconstruction effort. One unorthodox idea is that models made for the 2014 video game “Assassin’s Creed Unity,” which is set in Paris during the French Revolution, could prove useful to conservationists. The game’s artist Caroline Miousse spent more than a year making a detailed recreation of the cathedral. “
- 3D mapping of Notre Dame will help restoration [GPS World] “But the information to restore the cathedral is abundant. Besides photos, in 2015 art historian Andrew Tallon used laser scanners to create an immaculately accurate model of the cathedral, as reported in this National Geographic feature. “
- How Reality Capture technology could help rebuild Notre Dame [CBS] “Since the technology was used on Notre Dame, they say it means we now have incredible amounts of data concerning every architectural detail of the structure before the fire; highly accurate measurements of every detail inside the cathedral, including all the interior wooden structures that were lost in the fire. This includes the beams, the roofs, even the pews. “
- Craftsmen built Notre Dame, now it’s up to hi-tech robots and Chinese drones to save it. How will they pull it off? [South China Morning Post] “One way to start, the experts said, will be to bring in other drones to survey locations inside the vast cathedral that are too dangerous or damaged for engineers to reach. “
From the Ohio Web Library:
- The Notre Dame Fire Put Priceless Art and Artifacts at Risk. Here’s What Survived — and What Didn’t ( Gajanan, M. (2019). The Notre Dame Fire Put Priceless Art and Artifacts at Risk. Here’s What Survived — and What Didn’t. Time.Com, N.PAG. )
- Notre Dame Fire Donations Near $1 Billion As Cathedral Considers First Reconstruction Steps ( Viscusi, G., & Bloomberg. (2019). Notre Dame Fire Donations Near $1 Billion As Cathedral Considers First Reconstruction Steps. Fortune.Com, N.PAG. )
- OUT OF THE ASHES ( LONGMAN, J. (2019). Out of the Ashes. Nightline (ABC), 1. )
