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Mass Timber, But Not as we Know it for Notre Dame

Rebuilding Notre Dame’s fire-ravaged roof transports workers back to Middle Ages – If time travel was possible, medieval carpenters would surely be amazed to see how woodworking techniques they pioneered while building Notre Dame Cathedral more than 800 years ago are being used again today to rebuild the world-famous monument’s fire-ravaged roof.

Certainly the reverse is true for the modern-day carpenters using medieval-era skills. Working with hand axes to fashion hundreds of tonnes of oak beams for the framework of Notre Dame’s new roof has, for them, been like rewinding time. It’s given them a new appreciation of their predecessors’ handiwork that pushed the architectural envelope back in the 13th century.

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