Over the years, the Place de la République has been trans­formed into a major Parisian cross­roads, the day-to-day life of which is defined by the con­stant pres­ence of cars. Con­se­quently in 2008, the Parisian Munic­i­pal Author­i­ties announced a project for ren­der­ing the square a more attrac­tive loca­tion for pedes­tri­ans and for enhanc­ing the mon­u­ments around the square. The resul­tant light­ing con­cept has been devel­oped by Yann Ker­salé from AIK. The light is designed to fulfil two func­tions in this new public space: light­ing of roads for cars and the devel­op­ment of pedes­tri­an­ized areas.

Here, Selux Olivio lumi­naires are attached on 16.5 metre high poles taper­ing off to a point at the top. These pro­duce a com­fort­able white light for pedes­tri­ans or an orange light for the road­ways. The poles on the north-east­ern side of the square are equipped with acoustic sig­nals and LED screens, which dis­play an ever-chang­ing meta­mor­pho­sis of abstract light. The green area in the middle of the square is lit using Olivio Can­de­labra lumi­naires. These guar­an­tee a high level of vis­i­bil­ity for pedes­tri­ans, cyclists and motorists, even at night time. The light con­cept by Yann Ker­salé guar­an­tees visual com­fort, ele­gance and safety while taking into con­sid­er­a­tion the light design goals of the Parisian Munic­i­pal Author­i­ties.

buyer: Ville de Paris

architect: Trévelo & Viger-Kohler (TVK)

landscape architect: Martha Schwartz Partners et Areal

lighting designer: Yann Kersalé - AIK

electrical installation: ATEC Ingénierie

photographer: Xavier Boymond