The course Progetto di Luce organized by the Politecnico di Torino, Faculty of Industrial Design, in collaboration with Lighting Academy of Fondazione Targetti is just finished with really interesting results. Run as a workshop by teachers with different backgrounds (Giovanni Durbiano, Anna Pellegrino, Emanuela Di Grazia, Anna Marotta and Elettra Bordonaro, representing Lighting Academy), the main purpose of this educational initiative today at its second edition is to give students different views, approaches and contributions to lighting design.
In 2009, the case study was a five star Hotel in the ‘noble’ centre of Turin. This year the attention moved towards public spaces and social renovation, and an area of Turin. This area, known as Murazzi, includes the arcades that coast the Po river, used in the past as boatsheds, and that people perceive as a dangerous place, with criminality and drug dealers. But it is also one of the best place in the centre of Turin for clubbing at night, that’s way the Municipality decided to promote and renovate the area, trying to enhance its image and reputation as much as possible. The idea was to give coherence and uniformity to this area, designing a new kind of déhor for the multitude of locals, pubs, clubs, and to enhance safety with a new lighting scheme. Students were asked to deal with both these design aspects and to develop different proposals for the City of Turin. The experience was particularly interesting and interactive. In order to know and meet all the requirements for this particular project, indeed, students had the possibility to speak with clubs owners, city light technicians, riverside maintenance technicians. Some of the best projects have been selected as interesting or innovative o really well executed. In springtime an exhibition of all projects will be organized in the clubs.
It is the case of Freestyle, by Zhennan Dai and Tijana Zivanovic. Zhennan and Tijana were inspired by the river and its historical architectures. “This is a place where history coexists with modernity, where peace coexists with passion, where people are free, where light coexists with shadow”, they explain. According to this concept, the space in front of clubs is covered by a tent designed ad hoc to create semi-closed spaces. The historical façade is lit with a wall washer effect in order to create a steady image as an old picture from a past time. The tent which goes up and down is in contrast with the façade – old and contemporary, linked by light. It is lit up from the ground, following its shape, in order to create extraordinary shadows on the façade. The tent is a unique piece, but it can be seen as different parts. It is ‘disharmonic’ with continuity. The water plays a key role to create a place for resting and entertaining, enlarging the activity space.
Another interesting and amusing project is Nuova linfa ai Murazzi [New lymph to Murazzi] by Filippo Besenzon and Daniele Moretto. “The title of our project is linked to our intention since the beginning: bringing new life, another way of living this space by day and by night”, they say. The main idea was to give a real uniformity to the lighting system, actually really poor and not coherent, both for the public side and the clubs, giving a better sense of safety and, at the same time, a sense of the place and direction. The solution proposed by Filippo and Daniele is a green roof made with semitransparent Barrisol, a kind of covered path to direct fluxes of people, bicycles, etc. The leaf is the link between architecture and light, a green light object shining by night that animates the whole.
Remarkable for its sense of place, the rationality of the concept and the design, it is the project Easy to get off by Yoshiomi Takahashi and Aboozar Jameh Tahaf, where the Japanese influence of the first one is evident. “We have a river, we have clubs and their users during the night, we have an old wall and its history. We have a low level street that connects some parts of the city together and to the river. We have such bad news about violence. We should think of these elements not as problems, but as materials to play with”, Yoshiomi and Aboozar tell us. The project is basic in a really architectonic way: the façade of Murazzi is free from any elements so to respect it, to enhance it as a real monument of the city. The element of the tent, made of acrylic fabric, strongly characterizes the space, linking the wall to the river just with the element of light. Easy to maintain and “to get off”, really low budget, perfect for this kind of application!
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