Learning How to Light Up a City From an Italian Architect
16 may 2016 urban innovations lighting design quality of life energy efficiency education cld itmo university creative lighting design
Creative Light Design School (CLD) at ITMO University held a training course called “Lighting design for the cityscape” Marco Frascaralo, curator and co-author of “Lighting Design Handbook” and Professor at the Italian University RomaTre, was invited to lecture at the course. In his interview with us, he explained how with the help of light design one can enhance public spaces and make the city more cheerful
Marco, what would you say are some of the important concepts that were explored in this course?
The participants of the course were mainly decorators, designers and artists. Most did not possess professional skills relevant to lighting design, therefore, together with our Russian colleagues we began with introductory lectures about the fundamental rules and techniques of lighting and suggested to the students to create a lighting project for the Young Spectator’s Theater and the adjoining square.
During the sessions, we talked about the professional approach to lighting design and about the tools that can be applied to it. For example, if you want to properly illuminate a table, you need to take into account its size, color, shape, and material from which it is made. But when it comes to designing the lighting for an entire building, it’s important to showcase its social and cultural significance. I showed the students some examples of my projects in Italy. I spoke about lighting up the EUR district in Rome, which was built during the time of Mussolini. My colleagues and I chose this example, because its architecture is very similar to the Young Spectator’s theatre, which, by the way, I really like.
