by Lucien Libert and Elizabeth Pineau
PARIS/COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The restoration of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, ravaged by a fire in mid-April, must be done step by step, without rushing: this is the advice given by a French expert on historical monuments, a direct witness to the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris in 2019.
Antoine-Marie Préaut, architect and former heritage and architecture advisor to the former Minister of Culture Rima Abdul-Malak, closely followed the stages of the reconstruction of Notre-Dame, which must reopen for worship at the end of the year.
An experience which can today be useful to Danish officials faced with the fire of the Old Stock Exchange in Copenhagen which occurred, within one day, five years after that of the Parisian cathedral.
“It is important not to rush. There are a thousand subjects at once and the temptation is to move very quickly,” he warned in an interview with Reuters.
“This will be done over a long period of time: first limit the disaster, check the stability of what remains, establish the extent of the disorder, diagnose everything and quickly begin to organize security and stabilization operations.”
In the eyes of the expert, teamwork is essential.
“The idea is to have as transversal a look as possible and to be able to hear the emergency services, the experts, the architects and start to put together all the skills, all the know-how.”
DISTURBING SIMILARITIES
As at Notre-Dame, built in the Middle Ages, the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, a 17th century building, was under construction when the fire occurred. Both buildings had wooden frames that went up in smoke, and metal roofs.
“A construction site brings hot spots, more people circulating in the buildings. It’s an additional risk,” underlines Antoine-Marie Préaut.
In addition to securing the site, the Danes will have to carry out an investigation to establish responsibility for the disaster. Then the time will come to finance the renovation work, for which Notre-Dame de Paris has raised around 850 million euros.
“We do not know how much the restoration of the Copenhagen Stock Exchange will cost but we can hope that the Danes will benefit from private funds to support the project owner, the Chamber of Commerce, in this undertaking which will be long and costly,” says Antoine-Marie Préaut.
On April 15, 2019, Antoine-Marie Préaut was one of the first to enter Notre-Dame while it was still engulfed in flames. The images of the fire at the Copenhagen Stock Exchange were all the more disturbing for him as there were many similarities between the two buildings.
“The dimensions of the Old Stock Exchange, this spire which fell a few hours after the start of the fire, the materials, the large nave whose length is strictly the same as that of Notre-Dame de Paris irremediably suggest a proximity between these two terrible disasters,” he said.
(Report by Elizabeth Pineau and Lucien Libert, with Gwladys Fouche, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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