Notre Dame’s Roof Might Be Reconstructed With the Same Wood Used Centuries Ago—Because It’s More Fire-Resistant Than You Think

Emmanuel Macron’s dream of adding a “contemporary” touch to
Notre Dame’s reconstructed roof and spire may be dashed entirely
after one of France’s leading architects, Eric Wirth, vice
president of the Guild of French Architects, declared that it would
be a grave mistake to rebuild the roof in anything but same wood
used in its original construction.

Wirth forcefully argued that wood—rather than concrete,
material, or other materials that have been suggested—was the most
ecological and structurally sound material during at a hearing
at the National Assembly this week.

“The most modern material, the most ecological today,” he said,
“is wood. It is the only one that traps carbon.” He also noted its
natural fire resistance. “[Notre Dame] has been there for 800
years. If the structure had been made of steel, there would be no
cathedral to speak of today,” he said. In a fire, “iron holds for
half an hour, an hour, and then writhes, pulls on the walls and
collapses everything.”

In the immediate aftermath of the April 2019 blaze that
incinerated the cathedral’s roof, architects around the world
imagined replacing it with everything from stained glass to a public
park—ideas that were largely laid to rest by a ruling of the
French Senate in May.

General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who is overseeing the Notre-Dame
reconstruction, denied claims that oak wood had already been chosen
to redo the frame.

“There will be a study, examination of all possible options,” he
said in the assembly, and cautioned that he would investigate any
“lobbying” by the wood industry. Wirth rebuffed the claim of
lobbying, saying “the money is there” and that though fealty to the
centuries-old materials may come as something of a surprise, it is
practicality that fuels his perspective.

Wirth also warned against the “brilliant”-sounding solutions of
more modern materials like metal, which have been praised for its
lightness. “Beware of false good solutions,” he said, “These
cathedrals, they hold structurally, because there is a mass on an
arch… it only works because it is heavy.”

Yet there are several precarious steps that need to take place
before constructing the new roof becomes viable. Namely, builders
must take down the charred wooden structures that still remains in
the church. “There is an extremely important step ahead, which is
to remove the scaffolding that had been built around the spire,”
Georgelin told France’s CNews, adding that the “the cathedral is
still in a state of peril” and liable to collapse.

Macron’s vow to rebuild Notre Dame within five years was also
thrown into question at the assembly when Wirth noted that, despite
having all the photographic, computer, and digital records ready to
reconstruct the cathedral identically, the best approach could take
years to formulate.

The post Notre Dame’s Roof Might Be Reconstructed With the
Same Wood Used Centuries Ago—Because It’s More Fire-Resistant Than
You Think appeared first on artnet News.