Restoring a building is easier, thanks to technology. More specifically, thanks to a number of innovations that represent a fundamental opportunity to protect buildings and preserve cultural heritage, facilitating safer management and more effective prevention of future damage. At the top of the list of digital solutions is 3D rendering, which ensures a series of advantages that can facilitate reconstruction work.

One of the most significant demonstrations of this evolution is the rebirth of Notre Dame Cathedral, which was severely damaged by fire on 15 April 2019. To remedy the sudden disaster that destroyed the spire and most of the roof of one of the most famous Gothic monuments, the French government invested 700 million euros in a restoration plan that took five years to complete.

An unrivalled level of detail

At the centre of the plan was the possibility of reconstructing the Cathedral, thanks to an extremely precise digital replica. Four years before the fire, the laser scan of the entire building was carried out by Andrew Tallon, a Belgian art historian who died in 2018. He provided the basic model for the restoration, as he mapped the entire interior and exterior of the Parisian Catholic place of worship. This made it possible to virtually reconstruct every

architectural element of the Cathedral with precision and a level of detail that is impossible to achieve with traditional methods.

As many experts in the field have pointed out, it is only thanks to the use of high-precision 3D scanners that an accurate restoration could be carried out, making the building safer and more resistant for the future. Because the meticulous mapping of the entire monument provides a complete digital archive for future conservation work. This means that the architectural details of Notre Dame will be preserved for future generations. This is an important aspect, as with the old tools, there would have been no certainty in the future.

3D is for many and useful for everything

Using a laser or structured light, the 3D scan captures every detail of any shape of an object. The concept goes beyond the single building because it extends to neighbourhoods and entire cities. In all these cases, precision makes the difference because 3D scanners capture details invisible to the human eye. For this reason, three-dimensional models are used not only for the restoration of historic buildings but also for urban planning, production and interior design.

The digitisation of monuments is, therefore, useful on many levels: on the one hand, it allows architects to visualise buildings as they were conceived; on the other hand, it allows details to be preserved that would otherwise be invisible to posterity. Not to mention, such a tool is important for students as a potential source of learning in the historical, cultural, and architectural fields.

If the two main advantages of restoration using 3D rendering are precision in detail and efficiency in terms of the time saved in examining the structure and assessing the damage, the most surprising aspect is that there are no downsides.

Specific equipment is needed (including drones to reach the most complex and damaged areas), as well as specific training to use the tools, but there are no side effects, limitations or hitches in the process as long as you have the necessary budget to create a digital replica of each monument you want to protect.