French lighting design has always garnered a reputation for being bold and beautiful. Here Vincent Laganier gives us an overview, a tour de force if you like, of the best French architectural lighting artists as highlighted in his recently launched book, 'Lumières architecturales en France' published by Éditions AS, from their very first creations to those at the end of the second millennium...

At the end of the last century a new way of approaching nocturnal illumination became the norm in France. Off the beaten track and concomitant with the development of lighting techniques, a new type of person became involved: artists, sculptors or plasticians, lighting technicians, lighting designers, and stage designers. They originated from the worlds of the arts, professional entertainment and the cinema, or from manufacturers of lighting systems. Contributing their knowledge and skill, they established a sensitive, practical and up to date dimension to lighting, of which the new illumination of the Eiffel Tower in late 1985 was the starting point. Whether ephemeral or permanent, their creations, in prestigious or abandoned places, impress the mind...

Pierre BIDEAU
Lighting designer
CIEL: Conception Ingénieurie Etudes de Lumière, La Riche
It is this electronics engineer who was the true initiator of architectural lighting in France with his illumination of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on 1st January 1986. The monument is silhouetted from inside with a backlit effect using high-voltage sodium lamps. Rapidly rotating circular optic projectors are installed on the metal structures. He also designed the twinkling lights and the lighthouse which have formed the characteristic and internationally renowned silhouette of the Eiffel Tower since the year 2000.

Yann KERSALÉ
Plastician
AIK, Vincennes
www.ykersale.com
The precursor of architectural lighting in France, Yann Kersalé is a virtuoso, as demonstrated at the end of 1987 by the ephemeral lighting of the glass roofs and walls of the Grand Palais in the heart of Paris. The vault breathed in blue in time with the atomic clock. The white ribs of the frame were temporarily lit from a gigantic hourglass. Since then, he has published several books presenting his many installations. His last book, in 2003, was called in both French and English "Yann Kersalé" and is a true retrospective of his skill in which the artist gives his point of view and recounts his career in lighting.

Louis CLAIR
Lighting designer
Light Cibles, Paris
www.light-cibles.com
The founder of the first independent design firm for illumination and lighting design in Paris, Louis Clair combines his experience of cinematographic techniques and commercial management gained when working for manufacturers. In 1989 he illuminated the Rotonda of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in Paris using the interplay of positive and negative contrasts. He introduced darkness on the corners of the building. This was also the first time white sodium light sources had been used out of doors. In 2001, he became the second president of the ACE (Association des Concepteurs Lumière et Éclairagistes - Association of Lighting Designers and Lighting Technicians), founded in 1995, whose first president was Roger Narboni. In 2003, he published a book in French and English called 'Architecture de Lumière' (Architecture of Light) in which he presents in particular his use of ambiences, letters and writing in light.

Pierre and Jean-Fran�ois ARNAUD
Stage Directors, Artistic Directors, Lighting Designers
ECA: Études et Créations d'Ambiances, Poissy
Pierre Arnaud is the creator of numerous son et lumiére sets all over the world. In 1989, with his son Jean-François, he created a permanent and dynamic lighting system for the mediaeval centre of Cordes, north-east of Toulouse. The lighting accentuates each small column and the cornices of the façades. The very low-voltage dichroic halogen lamps used in the interior décor are all graduated here. The lighting was integrated with the architecture using small specially made projectors.
In 1995, they devised "Les Nocturnales", a nocturnal presentation of towns and sites using dynamic lighting for the Palais des Beaux Arts in Lille (1995), followed by the historical centre of Colmar (1997), both designed with Duilio Passariello. To discover what they created, visit the website of the photographer Jean-Marc Charles - www.jmcharles.com.

Philippe HUTINET
Lighting Designer, Stage Designer
Agence Philippe Hutinet, Pisieu
www.hutinet-concept.com
A lighting technician for entertainments and films, Philippe Hutinet is moving progressively towards permanent lighting. In 1989, the illumination of the Clémenceau bridge in Lyon revealed his artistry. The railings are gently emphasised by a graphic yellow line of light referring to the 'Monts d'Or' (Golden Hills) region. The high-voltage cold cathode tubes used, then traditional in commercial signs, constituted a first in architectural lighting.
In 1997, he illuminated the Valmy underground station in Lyon with the painter Jean-Philippe Aubanel. The ground became a deep blue stained glass window with white motifs drawn on it. The whole platform is back-lit by fluorescent tubes placed beneath the surface. A string of red LED beacons at the end of the platform lights up progressively as the train arrives and goes out again in the same way as it leaves.

Philippe MOUILLON
Artist and Plastician, Artistic Director
Laboratoire sculpture-urbaine, Grenoble
www.lelaboratoire.net
Experimenting with new logics of contemporary creation in urban spaces, Philippe Mouillon designs transversal installations using a network of writers and sculptors from five continents. In 1990, for three nights in Grenoble, he created an event on a planetary scale - "façades imaginaries", bringing together 150 plasticians from all over the world. The artists were invited to reinterpret the façades of a cathedral built three centuries ago. These works, specially created for the occasion, were then projected at the real scale of the building and precisely adjusted to its volume. This collision between the well-established local identity and the diversity of the world was so innovatory that Philippe Mouillon toured the cities of the world with his projects.
In 1999, he devised an open-air museum of light called "à la nuit tombée" (at nightfall) financed by the local operator Gaz Electricité de Grenoble. The supporting wall of the embankments of the Isère, the river that flows through the city of Grenoble, is lit for 600 metres by 27 watertight projectors specially made with a fibre-optic system concealed in the projector supports. The images presented were designed by great artists dedicated to plastic research into light and shade: the South African William Kentridge and the Chinese Lu Shengzhong, for example. More than ever, the river, as Heraclitus said, is "a constant elsewhere in our here and now".

Christine DE VICHET and Philippe NOIR
Stage designers
Itinérance, Paris
&
Vladimir LYSZCZYNSKI
Lighting technician
These three designers have become accustomed to working together, firstly on demonstration spaces and then on summer scenic tours by night. Thus, 'Les Imaginaires' at the abbey of Mont St Michel in 1991 and the chateau of Azay-le-Rideau in 1995 made them famous.
At the end of 1999, Bourges in central France inaugurated 'Les Nuits Lumières', a night-time tour for which Pierre Bideau designed the illumination of its public spaces and its cathedral while Vladimir Lyszczczynksi concentrated on its privately owned buildings. The streets are bathed in a fairylike blue ambiance produced by blue metallic iodide lamps. The interior courtyards of the buildings are dynamically lit by the projection of historical images against a musical background. After midnight, public lighting is provided by high-voltage sodium lamps.

Roland JÉOL
Lighting Designer
Atelier Roland Jéol, Lyon
After occupying various posts and becoming regional director with a manufacturer, Roland Jéol then set up his own lighting design workshop. In 1992, the Chateau Lumière in Lyon became his key creation. The illumination evokes the magic of the cinema: oblique, almost horizontal light encircles the building using metallic iodide lamps, the balustrades are lit by countersunk fluorescent lamps and the roofs punctuated by small luminous dots. Only the yellow tiles are accentuated using a fibre optic system with a halogen terminal emission.
In 1997, he illuminated the Piazza façade of the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, the architectural showpiece of Renzo Piano (Italy) and Richard Rogers (England). The horizontal lines of the metal beams and the characteristic shape of the caterpillar are delicately emphasised. Only the frontage of the structures is lit, using metal iodide projectors fitted with special horizontal slats.

Jean-Michel QUESNE and Hél�ne RICHARD
Stage Designers, Artistic Directors
Skertzó, Paris
www.skertzo.com
Creators of huge images projected on to external architecture, Jean-Michel Quesne and Hélène Richard are highly talented artists. They have revolutionised the high-power projection style through their sets of poetry and magic that never fail to astonish. In 1995, they created 'Les Polychromies' for the collegiate church of Notre-Dame-la-Grande in Poitiers for 15 minutes. In the European Park City, famous for its "Futuroscope", their creation appeals to the imagination. The traces of colour discovered during the restoration of the façade are transformed into light projected on to the architectural details. Since 1999, they have repeated the experiment every summer on the three doors of Amiens cathedral, the picture on the cover of my book.
In 1999, they created "Les Métamorphoses" at the chateau of Chambord with Roger Narboni doing the lighting and Nicolas Frize in charge of the music, a scenic tour of four levels of the building. For the surprise element, the north elevation is hidden by silhouettes in Chinese shadows of the trees in the surrounding park. The chimneys and round towers emerging from the roof are accentuated by fibre optic and dichroic halogen lamps.

Michel PIERONI
Lighting Designer
Aartill, Montmorency
Michel Pieroni began his career as Project Manager at Light Cibles and then set up his lighting design agency. In 1998, he created the architectural and sporting illumination of the Grand Stade de France at Saint Denis, near Paris. In 1999, the extension of the Palais des Congrès in Paris, designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc, was begun. The dynamic polychrome lighting on the sloping façade uses traditional projectors fitted with white, blue, green and magenta metallic iodide lamps. A technical innovation was introduced here: graduating the sources of light at between 60 and 100% of their flow capacity. Two shades of colour alternate for four hours every evening.