After the Fire

After the fire at the Notre Dame cathedral on April 15, 2019, many wonder what will happen in the wake of this momentous event. There are plans to rebuild, but many wonder if the money would be more beneficial to use the money to fund other causes.

The fire, which was said to be caused by an electrical malfunction, swept through all the wood parts of the cathedral and didn’t leave much of the inside of the cathedral standing. The building was mostly made of non-flammable materials, but much repair is still needed for a lot of the building because most of the structure was made up of flammable materials.

Already there are plans to rebuild the cathedral, and there has been one billion dollars pledged for the work, all donated to the cause. The prime minister of France has vowed that the rebuilding will be done in five years, in time for the 2024 Olympic Games, which are going to be held in Paris.

There are debates about whether the rebuilding of the cathedral should stay true to the original design, or if more changes should be made to change the cathedral during the rebuilding process. There has been discussion about using this rebuild as a chance to make the building more eco-friendly, as well as fixing some design flaws from the original building.

There has been a design competition for the blueprint of the rebuilding, and many people have posted what they think the cathedral should be rebuilt on Instagram. Even major architect firms have submitted more professional designs.

Some people believe that this should not be taken seriously, as some people are just presenting options as an attempt to become famous, so are gearing their designs towards more modern things that will not hold up in a hundred years. Whatever design that is chosen will have both negative and positive responses, as there is a very divided view by most people.

The last time anyone remodeled the cathedral was in the 1820s, after a long period of neglect and destruction. Most of the additions, like the famous gargoyles that perished in the fire, were extremely controversial at the time, and it is likely that whatever is added on now will also be very controversial.