Arc-et-Senans, France by Le Point Lumineux (Thierry Walger)
In 1771, the French architect and town planner Claude Nicolas Ledoux, one of the most important exponents of French and European neoclassical architecture, was appointed superintendent of the royal saltworks under the reign of Louis XV and given the task of building a new works between the villages of Arc and Senans. After his first project was rejected by the king, Ledoux proposed a set of buildings arranged in a perfect double semicircle, with the east-west diameter formed by the salt-production buildings. His design was extremely rational, with a specific destination for each building and area. Its semicircular shape, composed of geometric rows and parterres, includes the Director’s House. Built at the centre of the radiating paths, it illustrates the architect’s aim of giving the Saline Royale a “pure shape like that of the natural course of the sun”. This mix of architecture and landscaping was meticulously developed with a balance and sense of proportion that has generated great beauty.
This historical construction, studied in every school of architecture, was taken in hand by the lighting designer Thierry Walger of Le Point Lumineux in Besançon. He focused his efforts almost exclusively on the architecture, leaving the large lawns and surrounding trees in a perfect, natural penumbra that makes the geometric parterres and concentric rows stand out even further.
