The children's workshop at the Center Pompidou switches to LEDs while preserving its historic heritage lighting fixtures

Welcoming an average of 10.000 visitors per day of all ages, it offers, within the children's workshop, a multitude of activities intended to raise awareness among young people of art and creation. In this exhibition area, the Center Pompidou wanted to replace energy-consuming incandescent lamps with LEDs with a major challenge: preserving the structures and suspensions of existing lighting fixtures, classified as historical heritage. To achieve this technical and aesthetic feat, he relied on the expertise of Sylvania Group in the design of tailor-made lighting solutions.

Modernize without distorting

With the desire to awaken the critical spirit of children and adolescents and to raise their awareness of contemporary creation in all its forms, the children's workshop organizes visits and workshops around the major themes, artists and movements presented at the Center Pompidou. In addition to young visitors accompanied by their families, it also receives school groups throughout the year, from kindergarten to high school, as well as classes welcoming students with disabilities or those with psychological or cognitive disorders.

For the lighting of the three spaces that make it up, the children's workshop is equipped with imposing lighting fixtures classified as historical heritage, previously equipped with incandescent bulbs. Banned from marketing since 1^er January 2013, they also had the disadvantage of being very energy consuming with a power of 205 W per unit. This is why Charles Bayard, High Current Technical Manager at the Center Pompidou, wanted to replace them with LEDs with the triple challenge of finding an equivalence which:

• adapts intelligently and easily to the dimensions of existing industrial suspensions which absolutely had to be preserved,
• delivers the quality of light required for this exhibition area in which a young audience walks with varying degrees of retinal sensitivity and therefore visual comfort,
• is compatible with a lighting management system in order to create groups of luminaires and be able to adjust the light intensity to the use of the space.

Not finding a satisfactory solution meeting all of these criteria to modernize the lighting installation, he then approached Sylvania Group which, thanks to the know-how of its Saint Etienne factory, provided him with 100% tailor-made response in line with your expectations.

A unique “Made in France” design

Once the needs of the children's workshop had been identified and the specifications established, “the first step consisted of defining how to easily fix and connect the LEDs to existing lighting fixtures. After having resolved this technical installation constraint, we then, with the design office of the Saint Etienne factory and Yann Chevrier, Senior Project Manager – Expert Designer Lighting / Energy, worked on the quality of light and the power of the luminous flux expected in relation to this type of environment, while respecting the dimensions of the initial device” explains Léo Perez, Business Engineer Ile de France at Sylvania Group.

After more than a year of reflection and numerous diagrams produced, the Sylvania Group teams created a light plate in 100% recycled steel equipped with miniature LED optics in a black finish to reduce the luminance as much as possible (<200 cd/m2 at 65°) and the perception of light sources (UGR<16). Its ingenious 1⁄4 turn fixing system ensures ease of installation, without damage, perfectly adjusted to the E27 socket of the suspension of the existing structure.

The prototype is then installed and tested on site to check the results. “ This phase was crucial because it saved us from going the wrong way and increasing the light output to match our needs, while maintaining the quality of light that we really appreciated. » underlines Charles Bayard of the Center Pompidou. Ultimately, three lines of LEDs were integrated into the board to provide direct lighting with a luminous efficiency >148 lm/W and a power of only 21,5 W per device.

Finally, to meet the expectations of the children's workshop in terms of lighting management, each luminaire has a Bluetooth communication module^® Mesh. Wirelessly, the SylSmart Standalone intelligent management solution allows Charles Bayard as well as the educators of the Center Pompidou to freely vary the light intensity by zone or by device, but also to modulate the scenarios on a case-by-case basis. using wall switches.

In total, 50 lighting fixtures were installed during the All Saints' Day school holidays by Engie, a high current service provider, which manages the center's electrical installation, then put into service in January 2024 with the support of Sylvania Group throughout the project. .

A perfect illustration of Sylvania Group's know-how in designing personalized solutions for all projects, the modernization of the lighting in the children's workshop allows the Center Pompidou to achieve a saving of 9.175 Wh while preserving its historic aesthetic. to heritage. But more importantly, this renovation brings its visitors, young and old, a real improvement in visual comfort.