Notre-Dame de Paris, one of France’s most iconic landmarks caught devastating fire on April 15th, 2019. Its roof and spire burned down. The reconstruction process began with laser scanning of the 800 years old cathedral to produce a 3D rendering of the damaged areas. Scientists had to work against the clock to create an entire digital backup of Notre Dame before the clues related to the fire are all removed.
In addition to the laser scanner data, the 3D team used a special set of cameras developed specifically for this huge-scale project. It took hundreds of photos to record the debris. These photos then used to create another 3D model. These virtual constructions were the building blocks of a vast digital Cathedral that is poised to play a key role in Notre Dame’s restoration. All the Cathedral data, past, present, and future will be compiled on a single digital platform archiving the different stages of the monument’s life for research and restoration. The platform is not only for reference but also a real working tool that allows navigation through a colossal database that continues to develop. Watch CNRS video to learn more.
Livio De Luca, research director at France’s National Center for Scientific Research and his allies across French research labs and the Scientists of Notre-Dame, have tapped the revolutions in digital mapping, visualization software, virtual reality and cloud computing to create a fantastical “virtual twin” of Notre-Dame. Donning VR goggles, scholars and sculptors, architects and coders can all meet and expand on this interactive simulation, reconstructing the cathedral virtually before each step is repeated in real-world Paris. Based in the cloud, this advanced avatar of Notre-Dame is a border-free zone open to digital designers and cyber-creatives across the planet, explains De Luca, who heads the coalition created with France’s Ministry of Culture to spearhead the cathedral’s virtual-to-physical resurrection. The article at “domus” describes how this stage of the reconstruction was done.
Further help to this project was a one historian’s passion for mapping ancient buildings. DW video describes art historian Andrew Tallon giant cloud of information, who collected over a billion points of data, years before the fire broke out.