Ledoux's Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans: A UNESCO World Heritage Site

The first industrial site to join UNESCO 's World Heritage List in 1982, the Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans is a site undergoing constant renewal where, as its brilliant designer Claude Nicolas Ledoux (1736-1806) would have wished, innovation marks the present and dictates the future. The Centre de Lumières was inaugurated on April 15, in close collaboration with Iconem, a company that specializes in the digital modeling of treasures from the past. The permanent immersive exhibition, installed in the East Pan House—a 1,500 sq. m (16145,87 sq ft) building originally designed for evaporating brine—continuously projects eight 3D films, wafting visitors to listed UNESCO sites around the world. The installation is based on the principles that have made Iconem so successful and famous: architectural surveys of threatened or inaccessible sites like Palmyra (Syria), Leptis Magna (Libya), the Serrania de La Lindosa (Colombian Amazon), and iconic sites like Giza or Venice. The history of the world joins that of the Saline (or saltworks), with the same goal of preserving cultural heritage and passing it on. A Monument to the Glory of Progress Since the early Middle…