Above video: The Frant - Why we really care about the Notre Dame fire?
A United States company says it’s got the answer to rebuild the historic Notre Dame spire in a quick, effective way: 3D printing.
‘Dimensional Innovations’ is a design team who claim to have the largest 3D printer in Kansas City.
The team was watching the Notre Dame fire at work when the idea came to them.
“We thought that using the 3D printer to recreate, as best we could, the spire that existed before was a way to keep the cathedral as accurate as it was. But doing it in a way that integrates the newest, best construction method of the day,” said Brandon Wood .
The team told Bloomberg the $2.2 million printer can print objects roughly three metres, by seven metres, by one and a half metres tall.
Dimensional Innovations say the new spire would be made from ‘thermoplastics’ - a combination of polycarbonate and carbon fibre - and would be able to replicate the traditional look of the Notre Dame.
They claim that using a 3D printer means the French government would be able to deliver the rebuild on time.
Using innovation for a historic rebuild
In April, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to rebuild the Notre Dame cathedral in five years.
The cathedral’s rector later confirmed he’d keep the building shut for six years. Macron also announced an international design competition to rebuild the famous spire.
The announcement has been met with a series of pitches, sparking debate over tradition versus innovation.
Dutch firm ‘concr3de’ also proposed the use of 3D printing for the Notre Dame restoration.
Unlike their US counterparts, concr3de want to turn rubble from the fire into a new 3-D printed stone.
The Dutch team says fallen wood, rocks and ash could be crushed into a powder that would then be 3D printed into missing parts of the church.
They’ve already tested out the plan on ‘le stryge’ - the 19th-century demon that previously sat atop the cathedral.
Concr3de says this process would ‘maintain the soul of the building’.
Other options include a glass roof and crystal spire, a swimming pool on the roof - even an urban garden.
One Slovakian designer has even pitched replacing the spire with a light beam directed to the sky.
But the innovation may face a real hurdle - the french people themselves. According to a recent YouGov France opinion poll, more than half want the Notre Dame Cathedral to be rebuilt as it originally was.
