An important part of the Abbey, which has produced 30 saints over the centuries, is an old 13th century barn that was carefully transported to the grounds by monks nearly 50 years ago to serve as the monastery's church. The 48m long by 16m wide structure is 14m high and built of oak, a large wooden building for its age. The Abbey sought to improve the church's indoor lighting with more state-of-the-art illumination but as silence plays a central role in the Benedictine tradition, absolute silence was a must.
"There could be NO noise, absolutely! The fixtures had to be completely silent," says Alain Cornevaux of ESL of France, lighting supplier and Elation partner on the project. "After contemplating and testing several fixtures, which weren't quiet enough, they came to the conclusion that the TVL 3000 was the right choice."
Besides the requirement that the new lighting fixtures be silent, a high quality of white light was vital as was discretion in lighting placement.
"We proposed the TVL 3000 II dynamic white version also for its level of brightness and quality of variable white light," states Jean Michel Vergniol from the ESL sales team, who worked closely with lighting designer Philippe Rabuteau from company Profil Scene on the project.
Thirty-five TVL 3000 fixtures are mounted on a series of oak beams along the nave of the church, each fixture drawing a low 72W of power and using silent convection cooling technology to eliminate fan noise.
"It also has adjustable barn doors and includes different beam angle lens kits, which were very useful during installation and positioning," Philippe says of the bright, colour temperature adjustable luminaires. The fixtures, which blend 24x 3W warm white and cool white LEDs to produce a uniform projection of flat white light along the length of the church, are used to complement and match natural light that penetrates the building from narrow rectangular and bay windows.
Maintaining the spaces architectural sanctity by discreetly placing the lighting units so they could not be seen from the baptistery was also an important requirement. The TVL 3000's small size allowed that to be possible. When entering the Abbey church, the sightline to the altar and visual purity of the church's beautiful oak frame has been preserved.
Installed in April of this year, the new Elation lighting is another bright chapter in the Abbey's storied history and certainly one of the more historic lighting upgrades to be found anywhere.
(Jim Evans)
