Post-fire studies of Notre Dame's framework: Historical and environmental wood memory of the medieval period between the 11th and 13th centuries. Birth of an interdisciplinary project

Abstract

The Notre-Dame de Paris (NDP) wooden oak frame is one of the greatest masterpieces of Gothic carpentry in France. It was constructed between 12th and 13th centuries, at a time of profound environmental and societal changes – climate optimum, strong demographic and economic growth – which created significant pressure on available forest resources, one of the key economic drivers of medieval societies. The project of the Notre-Dame oak wood frame study proposes four lines of research. The first three objectives aim to address society's adaptive response to the availability of wood resources during the High Middle Ages between the 11th and 13th c. The first objective is to study the timber and destroyed framework from an archaeological, mechanical and architectural point of view, in order to characterize the construction methods of the wooden frame and to identify the potential technical adaptations of the medieval society. The second purpose consists of characterizing the forest stands exploited, their management, and the possible silvicultural systems used for the production of adequate timber. The third purpose is to define the climatic and the socio-economical context of Paris and Ile-de-France via an unprecedented reconstruction of summer temperature and moisture from NDP woods, combined with textual sources. For the fourth objective, investigations on the hydro-mechanical properties of oak beams are undertaken to better understand the choice and use of oak beams in Middle Age for the NDP frame and to have the opportunities for innovations in wood uses in the context of European standard for timber buildings.