The medieval style market dates to the 19th Century and is a landmark of the town, renowned both locally and nationally as a destination for lovers of good products from all over the Lot. Its lively, pungent and diverse merchandise, atmosphere – and accompanying trade banter – immerses and captivates both visitors and regulars. It is also a meeting place and a hotspot of social activity.

In 2022, the Grand-Figeac Commune (town council) commenced a renovation project to upgrade the Place Carnot market, and as part of this asked landscape and architectural lighting practice Quartiers Lumières - from Castanet-Tolosan - to develop a lighting scheme highlighting the Market Hall canopy and its intricate roof structure that would maintain the historical and urban heritage elements of this district of the town, both in daytime and after dark.

They proposed 80 x Anolis Calumma XS MC LED luminaires which are fitted with a combination of 9 and 15-degree lenses for optimal coverage.

The project was led for Quartiers Lumières by Lionel Bessières. The Calumma fixtures were supplied by Anolis France, project managed for them by Eric Tabuteau.

Calumma XS luminaires – the smallest of the current Calumma range – were chosen for their expedient size, substantial power and excellent colour mixing including the rich and genuine white tones, achieved via four high-power multi-chip LEDs inside an elegant and durable housing that blends with the environment.

These fixtures are ideal for complementing all types of indoor and outdoor architectural installations and were a great fit this project, according to Lionel.

The default RAL colour for the installation is 7013 which is created very accurately by the Calumma XS fixtures.

This lighting concept was driven by the need for flexibility coupled with a seamless integration into the Market Hall. The Calumma XSs can also be used to light the roof-space in different colours for public holidays and other celebrations by varying the colours and intensities. The pillars are lit from a tight, low angle while the roof structure expanses are highlighted by crossed and laterally focussed lights.

The Calumma XSs also blend in with the discreet functional lighting of the Market, which is provided by 2700K luminaires fixed on the facades. Their levels are adapted to produce a soft, homogeneous glow of luminance.

Quartiers Lumières and Lionel have specified Anolis for several other projects including the Theatre de Verdure à Pau, the L’église St-Jean-Baptiste in Libourne and the Mairie (Mayor’s office) in Gaillac.

Knowing the quality and reliability of the brand and its products, they were happy to choose Anolis again for this installation.

The new lighting fixtures are rigged in a gently irregular rectangular shape midway between the centre and outside of the market canopy roof-space, attached to a series of different lengthened brackets which outrig them from the structure. They are focussed for the best general coverage of all the commercial activities happening below.

Each of the 80 Calumma XS units is individually DMX controlled via a series of Anolis E-Box remotes and DMX splitters feeding via Ethernet into a router and a Pharos controller which can be accessed locally or remotely via the cloud.

All the project’s lighting equipment was supplied via Châteaubriant-based lighting and integration systems specialists, Lumière Utiles, which also undertook the installation, programming and commissioning of the new lights.

Lumière Utiles was subcontracted by lighting installers Eiffage to also deal with the DMX management, and they currently have a one-year maintenance contract under the warranty terms with access to the installation, and the city has access to a control page for pre-programmed lighting looks and scenes.

Vital to the success of this project for the Grand-Figeac Commune was the active collaboration between Anolis and urban architectural regeneration experts, OCCIREP who partnered up sharing their collective creativity, engineering expertise, experience and abilities for all parties to think ‘out-of-the-box’ to find a perfect solution.

AxP Urbicus created the landscape design and reimagining of the Market Hall base area to aligning it more harmoniously with the surrounding Market Square buildings.

Specialist engineering knowledge was provided to Eiffage by Cabinet Merlin.

Photo Credit: Olivier Hannauer (La Chouette Photo)