Un Brin d’Soleil: Temporary Light Installation Brightens Montreal

Un Brin d’Soleil introduces a seasonal luminous presence above Place des Fleurs de Macadam in Montreal’s Plateau Mont Royal neighborhood. Designed it responds to winter’s visual austerity through dynamic light. The work is part of a municipal program for public events. It engages urban space without altering permanent buildings.

Aerial top-down view of the Un Brin d’Soleil light installation at night, showing its radial LED structure glowing in purple and orange hues above a snow-dusted urban plaza. — The suspended sculpture radiates dynamic color sequences from its central hub, contrasting with the muted winter ground below. Its geometric form becomes a temporary focal point in Place des Fleurs de Macadam’s public space. (Image © Latrompette Studio)

Design Concept

The project was selected through a local design competition. It features a 6.7 meter-diameter circular form with 32 radial elements. Each ray acts as an independent channel for color and motion. The design draws from organic patterns but uses precise digital control. This aligns with trends in non-permanent architectural design. Un Brin d’Soleil avoids fixed narratives. Instead, it offers shifting visual experiences tuned to dusk and pedestrian flow.

Un Brin d’Soleil light installation glowing in blue and purple hues above Place des Fleurs-de-Macadam at night, with snow-covered ground and surrounding brick buildings. — The suspended sculpture illuminates the winter plaza as pedestrians gather below, contrasting with the warm interior lights of adjacent historic structures. (Image © Latrompette Studio)

Materials & Construction

The rays are made of aluminum frames and translucent acrylic tubes. Each houses programmable LED strips with individually addressable pixels. The lightweight system allows complex animations while supporting overhead suspension. Installation required no ground work important in dense urban areas. The choice of durable building materials ensures resilience from November to April. The structure relies on minimal construction intervention.

Silhouette of a person standing beneath the glowing radial structure of Un Brin d’Soleil at night, with alternating red and white light beams radiating outward against a dark sky. — The human scale is emphasized as a viewer stands under the illuminated sculpture, highlighting its role as a focal point for public engagement in Place des Fleurs de-Macadam. (Image © Latrompette Studio)

Urban Role and Temporal Strategy

Funded by the Plateau Mont Royal borough, the project reflects a strategy to animate winter public life. It is produced by Société de développement de l’Avenue du Mont Royal. Unlike permanent works, Un Brin d’Soleil is cyclical and reversible. It will return each winter through 2028. This model lets cities test spatial ideas without long-term commitment. Such approaches inform evolving practices in cities programming. The project also adds to the public archive of experimental urban tactics.

Will recurring temporary installations like Un Brin d’Soleil reshape how cities value non-permanent architecture?

Architectural Snapshot:
A 6.7 meter suspended light sculpture using programmable LEDs on aluminum acrylic rays, installed seasonally in Montreal from 2025 to 2028.

light installation glowing in red and white above Place des Fleurs-de-Macadam at night, with a child standing on rocks below and snow-dusted ground surrounding the plaza. — The illuminated sculpture becomes a focal point for public interaction, as a child stands beneath its radial glow amid scattered boulders and winter snow. (Image © Latrompette Studio)

✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight

Un Brin d’Soleil delivers a temporary luminous intervention over a Montreal public square, realized through municipal support and an open call. Its radial LED elements blend digital choreography with urban spectacle. Yet the project remains confined to seasonal rhetoric using light as aesthetic balm without critically engaging winter’s spatial politics. Its sole strength lies in its non invasive installation, avoiding permanent alteration a rarity in civic art. Likely to fade from relevance once funding cycles shift, it nonetheless archives a transitional moment in how cities negotiate impermanence.