Anolis Calumma XL SC LED luminaires have been deployed to light up the famous and distinctive folded concrete triangular-shaped vaulted ceiling of the CNIT (National Centre for Industry and Technology) building at the La Défense CBD in Paris, France.
The new lighting project is part of a modernisation initiative, led by architect Jean-Luc Crochon of Cro&Co Architecture, who approached BOA Light Studio to create a plan to enhance the underside of the ceiling with lighting. The brief from the client, the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield management team who manage the property, was to “bring in more light”.
The imposing concrete ‘vault’ is 46 metres high and each side is 218 metres long, forming part of an equilateral triangle. Three glass façades each span 206 metres and allow daylight and sun to stream through. The new lighting concept was to illuminate the vault indirectly from the vantage points of all the roofs of the highest offices inside.
“We needed plenty of luminous power to assist with this, and selected the largest Anolis Calumma fixtures, the Calumma XL SC as their 11,000-lumen output gave us the punch needed plus an excellent quality of light,” explained Nedir Benkhelifa, light designer, BOA Light Studio.
The project coincided with the launch of Calumma, a new range of LED luminaires for installation projects needing spot, accent, or flood lighting solutions. The fixture’s optical design utilises 37 high efficacy single-chip LEDs, available with optional LED colour variants and various beam angles.
In February and March 2023, tests were undertaken on site with eight Calumma XL SC fixtures that were placed close to the final proposed locations to give realistic results. From these tests, they selected the fixture’s native 10° beam optics, tweaked the final fixture positioning, validated the imagined colour temperatures, and tested the lighting effect of the linear optics. The Calumma’s 8-channel control with CT whites and magenta-green colour adjustments allowed the BOA team to refine the desired shades during the testing.
“It is so simple to create different shades at this stage,” added Nedir. “We didn’t require the lighting to be like a disco, or going red for Christmas, etc., so we chose an elegant variable white signature look.”
Following the onsite demonstrations and testing, the Calumma XC SC was confirmed as the best fixture choice for the project, and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield placed the order for the tuneable white versions – 2,700 K and 4,000 K – that were manufactured at the Anolis factory in the Czech Republic.
Three rows of 8 x Calumma XC SCs mounted on metal tripods are located on the office roof section ‘islands’ towards the end of each vault arch and as they start to descend. Illuminating the ceiling and creating the textured relief that BOA envisioned, they reveal the grooves, detail, and linearity of the concrete shell by creating soft shadows.
The 1.2-metre-high eye-level stands – in smart graphite black (RAL 9011), manufactured by the installer, Citeos – allow the lighting to be masked from the terrace guardrails on each section. The Calumma bodies are fabricated from die-cast aluminium and rated IP67 and IK10 and are designed to withstand humidity and all temperatures, both outdoors and indoors.
They are programmed into the two shades of white. Nedir decided to work with these warmer tones, avoiding anything too cold, because the concrete is already cold and very raw, so lighting with cooler whites during the testing revealed material defects and colour differences that were somewhat prosaic.
“We created effective ‘slow breathing’ movements of light, as if clouds above are entering the building and we were immersed, playing with these ripples of light similar to the movement of clouds passing in front of the sun and the atmospheric shift you experience when that happens,” he related.
The fixtures are not all on simultaneously. One-third are turned off while two-thirds are working, and sometimes it’s the opposite, with two-thirds off and one-third on. These short sequences maintain a sensation of brightness over a cycle of approximately 15 minutes.
The 24 x Anolis luminaires are controlled via a Pharos system using DMX / RDM. Lumières Utiles handled the control aspect of the project for BOA and programmed a series of preset lighting sequences for the installation.
CNIT – the Centre of New Industries and Technologies – was the first building developed at La Défense. The idiosyncratic shape was dictated by the triangular plot of land on which it stands, originally occupied by the old Zodiac Aerospace factory.
