Chauvet enhances beauty Of Sainte Famille
- Details
As part of a recent revitalisation project, sponsored by the Conseil du Patrimoine du Québec, the church’s architectural flourishes and stunning frescoes now glow with a new radiance, thanks to a carefully planned all-LED lighting design by Philippe Péquignot that features a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by Montreal’s XYZ Technologie Culturelle.
“Our mission was to showcase the church and its frescoes without detracting from the original aesthetics of the building or its artwork,” said Charles Cadieux of XYZ Technologie Culturelle, which provided technical design assistance on the project in addition to specifying and supplying the lights. “The selection of the correct LED fixtures and judicious placement of them were critical to helping us achieve this goal.”
Using LED fixtures was essential to this project, said Cadieux, given the age of the frescoes. “The frescoes still had their original paint, so we didn’t want to expose them to heat from a non-LED fixture,” he said. “We were committed to making this an all-LED installation.”
XYZ Technologie Culturelle specified 10 Ovation Min-E-10CW compact ellipsoidals, one Ovation F-95 WW Fresnel, 31 COLORdash Batten-Quad 12 and 12 COLORdash Batten-Quad 6 RGBA linear washes, as well as 15 COLORdash S-Par 1 RGBA fixtures. The output of these fixtures was a critical factor in the decision to use them at Sainte Famille. However, before they could even begin to look at brightness, the design team had to be convinced that the fixtures were compact enough not to disrupt the aesthetics of the church.
“From the very beginning, it was an ironclad rule that anything we installed would have to be concealed by the building’s architectural details,” said Cadieux. “To maintain the original look of the church, it was essential to conceal the fixtures. However, at the same time we wanted the brightness. The compact Chauvet lights allowed us to have both.”
(Jim Evans)
