Montrouge (92). Design: Pena Paysages – Lighting design: Atelier Coup d’brilliance. ©AJJN Photography
Avenue Jean-Jaurès in Montrouge (92) is a rectilinear axis which connects the town hall square to the Jean-Jaurès roundabout. At nightfall, this pedestrian and road path is accompanied by light that is both functional, signage and scenographic. Depending on the chosen scenarios, the light signal at the base of the mast animates the urban space and energizes the nighttime perception of the route.
Florian Colin, lighting designer, Atelier Coup d’école, signed the lighting concept which accompanied the development of Allées Jean-Jaurès in Montrouge and which earned the Pena Paysages agency a Silver Victory in 2022 in the Victoires competition of Landscape. Avenue Jean-Jaurès was like many arteries in the city: a classic two-way street, straight, lined with plane trees planted on the sidewalks and equipped with two-way parking.
Reconciling unity and singularities
The avenue has been transformed into an urban promenade, with a reduced lane for automobile traffic, a cycle lane, a widened two-way sidewalk on the south side of the avenue which offers a pedestrian path accompanied by flowering trees, and lined with on either side of landscaped emergences along its entire length.
Pour Florian Colin, « the challenges of lighting this new axis consisted of meeting three challenges: maintaining the continuity of the avenue, working on the lighting effects on the layers of vegetation, and highlighting the lateral developments, real breathing spaces for pedestrians “. Beyond the aesthetic and functional aspects, the lighting study had to take into account the normative factors linked to car/pedestrian transition spaces, which are relatively complex in terms of lighting levels, uniformity and color temperatures. These vary from 2,700 K to 3,000 K depending on the space, thus offering warm and comfortable lighting over the entire perspective.
Customized lighting furnitureIn order to obtain a coherent common thread and a certain unity to the entire project with all its singularities, the Coup d’école agency (Yves Adrien) designed a light column developed by Technilum (MILE). “ We wanted to have a mast that was as simple as possible, and which could be adapted to different spaces. The column can integrate one, two, three or four luminaires in the upper part depending on whether it illuminates the road, the pedestrian, the town hall square, continues Florian Colin. We opted for a minimalist element, because along the promenade, the columns, located between the trees, had to blend into the new urban landscape, integrating as much as possible into the perspective. »
The second component of the mast is signage, also integrated into the column in the form of thirty superimposed PMMA slats, of different sizes, which are embedded in a corner of the mast on two sides, slightly projecting, for lighting the pedestrians. This part can be controlled in RGB and intensity. The masts are available in several heights: 8 m for car traffic lanes, 5 m for pedestrians and 1.20 m for bollards.
« The idea was to benefit from a sort of monolith, without aspirations, explains Florian Colin, that we equip ourselves with the elements we need for the different spaces. We wanted to pool the lighting furniture and bring as much uniformity as possible to the pedestrian path areas. »
