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Re:The Notre Dame fire and the future of history by rootusrootus on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @04:43PM (#19677109)
I think it would be a little insulting to try and replicate what was completely destroyed. Repairing something that has been lightly damaged or degraded over time is one thing. But when it's gone, it's gone, and the parts that are rebuilt should reflect our times, with a healthy nod of course to the existing structure that still remains. This is the next chapter in the building, something people will look back on a thousand years from now. We should make something we can be proud of.
Re:The Notre Dame fire and the future of history by theoh on Wednesday April 17, 2019 @10:14AM (#19682720)
A lot of aspects of Notre Dame date to the 19th C. Viollet-le-Duc made a lot of questionable improvements, including the addition of the flèche (spire).

That's part of the building's history now, for better or worse. I expect Viollet-le-Duc's work will be restored, even if some people think he was crass.

This whole issue isn't something that can be resolved easily. It's important not to look down on the activities of repair and maintenance. They might not be as glamorous as artistic creation, but obviously there's love, skill and creativity involved in repair as well. We need more of that.

A bad intervention by a currently successful artist or architect would be nothing to be proud of in future years. "Move fast and break things" is not appropriate in this situation. It's not as if a repair job involves pure boredom, imitation and humility—those craftsmen will be expressing themselves and their passion just fine.

The 19th C fixation on romantic originality, on the heroic artist? We don't need that. Not to be cynical about the state of architecture, but we can't match even Viollet-le-Duc's iffy work now. We need to shift into a different mode with more emphasis on preserving building skills and historical artefacts than on altering them to suit the whim of the people who happen to be alive now.

Re:The Notre Dame fire and the future of history by Gibbon1 on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @06:06PM (#19677780)
I think the Frauenkirche in Dresden is a counter example. That was reduced to a shattered hulk and rebuilt with as much of the original surviving stonework as possible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Frauenkirche