<story><title>Let’s fix up Notre Dame with concrete and steel, but let the sun shine into it</title><url>https://stainedglassattitudes.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/lets-fix-up-notre-dame-with-concrete-and-steel-but-let-the-sun-shine-into-it/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>chadash</author><text>A lot of the comments here are assuming that the author is proposing something that he is not (perhaps making this assumption from reading the title not the article itself). So I&amp;#x27;ll summarize.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s arguing that rebuilding the internal structure of the roof with wood beams would inevitably lead to another fire. Concrete and steel would last longer and be more structurally stable and resilient to fires.&lt;p&gt;What he&amp;#x27;s not arguing for is changing the visual character of the building. The steel and concrete he proposes would be in internal areas that people don&amp;#x27;t see. The &lt;i&gt;ceiling&lt;/i&gt; which is what people see from the inside would remain visually the same. So would the exterior. The part that would use concrete and steel would be the interior section of the roof which is only seen by maintenance crews.&lt;p&gt;Separately, he makes the argument that much of the stained glass installed during the 19th century was &amp;quot;severe and flat&amp;quot; rather than &amp;quot;delicate and jewel-like like genuine medieval glass&amp;quot;. He&amp;#x27;s arguing that we should install glass more closely resembling the original medieval glass, which would allow more light into the structure.&lt;p&gt;I think all of this is very much in line with trying to keep the character of the building the same.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: Reading the end of the article again, it&amp;#x27;s actually not clear to me whether he is proposing to put in clear glass or a stained glass that&amp;#x27;s a bit lighter than what was there before the fire. I think I initially misinterpreted and the former is what he&amp;#x27;s getting at.</text></comment>
<story><title>Let’s fix up Notre Dame with concrete and steel, but let the sun shine into it</title><url>https://stainedglassattitudes.wordpress.com/2019/05/21/lets-fix-up-notre-dame-with-concrete-and-steel-but-let-the-sun-shine-into-it/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Veen</author><text>Roger Scruton recently wrote about where he suspects the plans for the repair will go:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It would be wrong to assume that a gang of modernists set fire to Notre Dame – it could perhaps have been an accident. But there was no better way to advance the great project, shared by all forward-looking architects from Le Corbusier to Richard Rogers, of razing Paris to the ground and rebuilding it in concrete, steel and glass. An international competition of the kind proposed by President Macron will in all probability result in a replica of Norman Foster’s Sage Gateshead, expectorated onto the walls of the cathedral, to cling trembling above them like a gob of shiny snot.</text></comment>