Skills

Jan Boelen, Directeur artistique

Tiago Almeida, Daniel Bell, Carlotta Borgato, Aline Burle, Henna Burney, Ana Compadre, Marianne Dos Reis Martins, Charlotte Dumoncel d'Argence, Axelle Gisserot, Anne-Claire Hostequin, Clara Kernreuter, Mathilde Laroche, Carlo Marangoni, Arnaud Magnin, Mathieu Menard, Antonio Navarro, Emily Nirlo, Marie Pradayrol, Sandra Revuelta, Carlotta Rovesti, Carolin Schelkle, Marie-Amélie Simechalle, Paul Vachon, Johanna Weggelaar

The Biolab

In the Biolab, our team grows algae and mycelium species of interest and produces biomass in small quantities. The space is equipped with laboratory glassware, photobioreactors, aquariums, and growth chambers, as well as lighting and ventilation systems. The Biolab is equipped for carrying out strain transplants, microscopic observations, tracking primary growth criteria, formulating growth medium, treating the biomass after harvest, and conducting bench chemistry such as extracting pigments. The Biolab houses and preserves our strain library, and also includes a cultivation tank in the Camargue for producing algae at a pilot scale.

The Dye Lab

The Dye Lab is dedicated to the research, development, and production of natural dyes made from whole plants or powdered colorants. The space is equipped for every step of the process, from processing the raw plant material to dye baths and washing. It houses shredders and mixers, boilers and double boilers, washing machines, and a Datacolor lab dye machine. The Dye Lab continues to acquire additional equipment for dyeing thread cones, skeins of yarn, textile pieces, and manufactured objects.

The Resource Center

The Resource Center contains and archives the documentation of Atelier LUMA’s work and projects. Organized in a dynamic approach both on a digital platform and in a physical space, this documentation is made accessible to team members as well as to our collaborators and partners. The Resource Center includes a library, consultation tables, access to the digital documentation tool, a materials library, and a publishing unit.

The Garden

The Garden is adjacent to Le Magasin Électrique. The 200-square-meter plot is designed for studying and producing plant-based raw materials for Atelier LUMA’s labs and research workshops. With the help of botanists and landscapers, we organized a list of plants into twelve families based on their uses. The Garden plays an important role in our research into textile dyes, inks, pigments, mordants, leather tanning, textile fibers, basketry, rope-making, paper, natural gum, resins, latex, and soap. It is irrigated by an experimental underground system supplied by a phytoremediation tank that treats our wastewater.

The Testing Lab

The Testing Lab is equipped with machines for carrying out mechanical characterization on the materials developed by Atelier LUMA, to ensure their compliance with certain European standards. The space is equipped with a Martindale machine (to measure the abrasion and pilling resistance of fabrics), a Suntest machine (for UV accelerated aging), a tensile testing machine (to measure resistance to traction, elasticity, torsion, shearing, and compression of flexible and rigid materials, including textiles and yarns), a Kern moisture analyzer (to measure the relative humidity of materials), and a steam chamber used to dry materials at controlled temperatures for specific durations.

The Metal Prototyping Workshop

The Metal Prototyping Workshop is furnished with constantly evolving, high-tech equipment to support the prototyping of our architectural and design projects using steel, aluminum and stainless steel. 

This versatile facility is equipped with TIG, MIG and ARC welding stations, a 3-axis CNC for precise machining of various materials, a metal lathe, a vertical milling machine for precise drilling, and a range of portable power tools for finishes. These machines can be used to produce assembly parts, objects, molds and more. 

The Mineral Workshop

The Mineral Workshop is designed for the creation of prototypes and develop materials from a variety of minerals such as clay, plaster, lime, concrete and stone. Equipped with tools and machinery coming from traditional ceramics, the space enables the practice of throwing, modelling, stamping, slip casting, glazing and firing processes. In addition to traditional methods, the workshop incorporates two contemporary machines, an extruder and a 3D printer dedicated to clay pastes. It is also equipped with numerous portable tools for grinding, cutting, sculpting, compressing and molding minerals.

Within this space, Atelier LUMA has developed various building elements based on raw earth and lime, formulated clay pastes and glazes, designed a collection of tableware, as well as a prototype collection of architectural ceramics.

The Wood Workshop

The Wood Workshop is equipped to work on various projects involving plant fibers, enabling us to experiment, prototype and manufacture one-off pieces or small series. It also supports Atelier LUMA's project development by designing and producing templates and molds. 

It contains most of the tools of a conventional woodworking workshop, plus some more specifically adapted to the research carried out within the Atelier. It is furnished with a combined circular saw-table saw, jointer-planer, band saw, drill press and belt sander. It includes a set of portable tools, such as a digital router, a vacuum press and a large veneer press.