Lighting Concepts 2013 Lighting Concepts 2013 - Lamp

Puilaurens Cathar CastlePhotography: Jean-Marc CharlesLighting Project Author:Anne Bureau – WonderfulightElectrical Engineers:Damien Cayuela – Cetur LRCity / Country:Lapradelle-Puilaurens, FranceThe castle was built around theyear 1000 AD, on a rocky peak. Inthe 13th century AD, the persecutedCathar people used it as a shelter.Later the castle was used as “a stonesentinel” to guard the border ofthe French kingdom. The monument wasrestored in the 20th century.The castle of Puilaurens was choosento be an experimental site forthe night-time lighting beautificationof the ‘Aude, pays cathare”monuments. As it was an experimentalsite in a beautiful preservedlandscape, the challenge was to finda balance and a harmony between thecastle illumination and the naturalenvironment around, while preservingthe dark sky around.The monument is characterized bythe challenge of its constructionat the top of the rock peak. Puilaurensdeserves well the title of«citadel of the vertigo» which isoften given to the Cathar castles.The illumination includes the monumentand its promontory, so thatthe castle does not seem to “float”in the darkness with no relation tothe landscape.The lighting project reveals thesilhouette of the rock peak andemphasizes the architecture of thecastle, while respecting the naturalcharacter of the site andprotecting the night-mystery. Thespirit is not to put the site «underthe spotlights», but to make itdelicately emerge from the darkness.A poetic night-vision waslooked for, as the Romantics of thenineteenth century did it, by glorifyingthe secrets of the ruins ofthe past centuries.20