AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...

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environment and the planning of its
lighting.
Function of the City Squares: A
Brief Historical Analysis
Italy's squares, especially those located
in historical city centres, are
particularly difficult to light, as the
squares themelseves and the
surrounding buildings often have
considerable historical and
architectural value. Planning the
lighting for these "works of art"
requires that both lighting technicians
and architects collaborate, by first
establishing a goal, and then coming
up with the appropriate solutions to
achieve it.
It would also seem useful to carry out a
brief historical analysis of the criteria
that have governed urban development
through the ages, in order to
appreciate and understand our urban
"heritage" and incorporate modem
lighting systems into it without its
being spoiled.
On the other hand, it is also necessary
to look to the future and verify if it
might be possible to incorporate
lighting requirements at the planning
stage of new urban deevelopments. Do
current planning methods, in fact,
allow us to ask ourselves questions like:
should the lighting be secondary to the
environment, or should the
environment be planned, keeping the
possibilities and limits of modem
lighting in mind?
Planning the lighting for Squares
• Main Considerations
'The adventures of Baron Muchausen" di Giuseppe Rotunno
When lighting the squares, one has to
consider the pedestrian element,
meaning to say the areas where the
pedestrians are obliged to walk, their
stopping places, meeting places, their
viewing of the buildings and
monuments, publicity signs and
gardens; one also has to consider the
traffic element, which means creating
perfect visibility to ensure the drivers' —
and everyone else's — safety and also
regulating the fast traffic flow; then,
one has to find a way of coordinating
both the pedestrian and automobile
"traffic".
A good example is St. John's Square in
Rome, with its wealth of monuments
which, unfortunately cannot be viewed
in peace as the traffic constantly races
across the square.
Street lighting is obviously the answer
here, but how different it would be if,
for instance, one could divert the traffic
and turn the square into a pedestrian
area.
- creative function of the light
- use of colour to isolate various
elements
- design of new lamps and bases where
the existing lighting is insufficient
- installation of automatic and remote
control systems
- rendering the above as simple to
operate as possible.
Planning For the Different
Environments
The Historical Centre
In the paragraph following the
introduction, 1 mentioned the need to
analyse the criteria which have
governed the creation of the various
"meeting places", like agoras, forums
and squares, in the cities in the past,
and how important the different
buildings (both public and private),
churches and monuments were.
One has to improve the functioning of
the squares and light their buildings
and monuments to advantage, while
also reconciling this with the actual
positioning of the lamps, in order to
notonly achieve the best results, but
also to make sure the lamps themselves
blend in with the environment.
The lamp base has often had to
perform a decorative function,
particularly when the lamp itself was
niot powerful enough and had either to
be placed near whatever it was
illuminating, orina prominent
position. Today, one can either choose
to eliminate the base when it is too
intrusive, and install lighting sources
which are more powerful and can
therefore be positioned at a distance; or
one can continue to utilize the original
lamp, fitting it with more powerful
bulbs.
In any case, the lighting technician has
to consider ail of the following: new
lighting technician has to consider all
of the following: new lightingh
techniques; the use of colour and how
it is perceived by thew human eye; 0
possible camouflaging of sources, so
thatt they also blend into the
background during the day; the choice
of new designs for the bases.
lighting New Urban Areas
Nowadays, we are so used to living
with artifical light, that we don't
always consciously realize how
essential it is, in its permitting human
activity right around the clock,
especially in urban areas.
At one time, a city's activity was
virtually confined to the daytime, the
night-time activity being reduced to a
minimum. Undoubtedly, this was one
of the factors that influenced urban
planning at the time, which favoured
concentrating the various inhabited
areas into vast agglomerations,
allotting very little space to road
networks.
If it is possible today to create urban
developments with extensive road
networks, it is obviouslo mainly due to
the possibilities of modem lighting.
One cam, therefore, say that urban
development and lighting are very
closely linked; however, it would seem
that the relationship between the
actual planning of the developments
and the lighting is still somewhat
casual.