Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's Notre-Dame spire was much loved, but it was a fake. A modern replacement could become just as revered, says Tom Ravenscroft.

Notre-Dame Cathedral will be rebuilt. French president Emmanuel Macron has promised as much and the unprecedented donations, which stand at around ?850 million, means that the will and the funds are in place. But the billion dollar question is: rebuild what"
The safest option would be to replace what was lost as faithfully as possible, using the closest available materials. Notre-Dame is one of the world's most recorded buildings and the data exists to recreate the cathedral almost exactly as it was, but in better condition with an enhanced structure and improved fire protection. The numerous problems ? pressure to rebuild in time for the 2024 Olympics, availability of skilled craftspeople, finding 1,300 mature oak trees ? would all be overcome. Notre-Dame will be restored to its place at the heart of the French capital, but it can not be the same building as before the fire. Even if the cathedral is faithfully restored using materials and techniques from the appropriate time periods, they will be new materials and there is no escaping that it will be a replica.
Replicating what was there before was not the option taken by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc when he restored the building 150 years ago, and it is not what we should do now.
Viollet-le-Duc chose not replicate the original, but instead to reinvent the building ...