The Carmelite Chapel

When it came time to renovate Montreal's Carmelite Chapel, lighting design was front and center. The new lighting scheme had to be respectful of the building's heritage status, while also providing the flexibility to complement the chapel's many different uses. Lighting design firm Éclairage Public was up to the challenge, using a variety of Lumenbeam and Lumenfacade family fixtures to create a lighting scheme that is as versatile as it is beautiful.

Expertly mixing color temperatures and LED fixtures, Éclairage Public's design is flexible, controllable and discreet, accentuating the building's understated grandeur and complementing both quiet prayer and church celebrations. While most of the chapel uses a warm color temperature of 3000K, the surrounding window arches are lit in a cooler 4000K. The effect is to simulate daylight, providing a dramatic, almost theatrical contrast to the warmer illumination of the altarpiece and liturgical elements.

To maintain this atmosphere, the design firm chose to conceal many of the luminaires, avoiding visual clutter and damage to the architecture. Lumenfacade Remote luminaires, which are powered by a remote driver, were used to accent the sculpted adornments and the arches. Slim and inconspicuous, the Lumenfacade Remote luminaires are barely noticeable at the base of the columns surrounding the altar.

Lumenbeam Medium fixtures - fitted with snoots to shield from glare - were installed on top of the columns, with 10° narrow spots accenting the altar, and 40° floods providing general ambient lighting in the nave. On the altar, two Lumenfacade Remote luminaires upwardly graze the wall, making the canopy stand out. In the canopy itself, Lumenfacade Interior fixtures backlight the ornate pinnacles and highlight the Virgin and Child statue on top of the altar. Elsewhere, two Lumenbeam Small luminaires accentuate a Louis Jobin sculpture in the cloister, while Lumentask fixtures light up the sacristy.

The end result layers patterns of light, bringing out details in the architecture and providing a whole new range of interior lighting options.

Equipment Specified
13 x Lumenfacade (2', 4000K, 10° x 60°)
12 x Lumenfacade Remote (1', 3000K, 10° x 60°)
2 x Lumenfacade Remote (2', 3000K, 10° x 60°)
3 x Lumenfacade Interior (1', 4000K, 10° x 60°)
2 x Lumenfacade Interior (1', 3000K, 10° x 10°)
6 x Lumenfacade Interior (1', 3000K, 30° x 30°)
3 x Lumenfacade Interior (4', 3000K, 30° x 60°)
12 x Lumenfacade Interior (1', 3000K, 30° x 60°)
2 x Lumenbeam Small (3000K, narrow 10° spot)
1 x Lumenbeam Medium (4000K, 40° flood)
8 x Lumenbeam Medium (3000K, narrow 10° spot)
18 x Lumenbeam Medium (3000K, 40° flood)
3 x Lumentask (1', 3000K)
2 x Lumentask (2', 3000K)