Restoring Notre Dame to its full might after the horrific fire will be an expensive and long process but it is a thoroughly documented building. The foremost step is to use temporary metal or plastic to stop the rain water from getting in. Restoring Notre Dame will require brainstorming of a group of global experts and craftsmen.
The immediate challenge is to protect the interiors of the 850-year-old cathedral after fire consumed its timber-beamed roof. Historians and archaeologists have created extensive plans, detailed 3-D laser-scanned re-creations and images of the interiors of the cathedral over time. This will help the restoration process.
“The second challenge is actually salvaging the material,” said Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of the Conservation Organisation Historic England. “Some of that material may be reusable, and that’s a painstaking exercise. It’s like an archaeological excavation.”
The structure is still intact after the devastating fire falsifying several fears of losing the whole building.
“Structural engineers, stained-glass experts, stone experts are all going to be packing their bags and heading for Paris in the next few weeks,” added Jenny Alexander, an expert on medieval art and architecture at the University of Warwick.
The main decision to be made by French government is whether to restore Notre Dame as it was or choose a more creative approach towards it.
Eric Salmon, technical director at the Notre Dame cathedral in Strasbourg, France mentioned that “It is like a street accident. It can happen anywhere, anytime”.
“We are not going to modify an historic monument to respect the rules. The rules have to be adapted to the building,” he added.
