Living Facade of La Grande Épicerie
Project
Living Facade
Paris, 2017
Client
Frank et Fils
Scope
Lighting Design
Category
Exterior Lighting
About
The living façade of the Grande Épicerie is making its mark on its neighborhood’s urban landscape. The façade is bringing nature back into the city, aromatic plants, used in cooking or herbalism, come to mix with perennials and grasses. During sunset the animal life in the façade becomes visible, the fireflies are waking up. They are starting slowly: first a single firefly starts to light up, then more and more are starting to communicate until swarms of fireflies are flying around the façade. At first, the façade lighting just turns on in some areas and then they are starting to move around as if in in swarms.
The LED fixture is a customized optical system that transports the light outside in front of the plants. The optic is creating a very small direct light with a glare (firefly) and an indirect glow by reflecting most of the light back onto the plants. Dimming the light decreases the size of the glow and it seems like the fireflies are flying around the façade. We used warm white light created by a 3000K white LED combined with a green and a red LED to enhance the color of the plants.