Lighting for Genova
Genova, Italy
A gesture of light can change the face of a city.
In 2021, the ambitious Light for Genoa project transformed two forgotten squares in the historic center into lively, welcoming, and shared spaces.
The project was conceived by Stefania Toro and carried out by a team of designers from the Women in Lighting network, with technical support from Spacecannon.
The project involved permanent lighting installations in nine historic squares, each with its own identity, to restore the spaces to an active role in everyday urban life.
Among these, Piazza Don Gallo and Piazza Stella were entrusted to Spacecannon as technical partner, contributing to the creation of complex, innovative solutions deeply connected to the territory.
In Piazza Don Gallo, the pilot project for the entire program, light became memory.
In the center of the square, a hexagonal steel seat embraces a tree planted in memory of Don Andrea Gallo. Each side of the seat bears an engraved word, such as "community" or "participation," backlit by a lens designed specifically by Spacecannon to achieve a wide, uniform, and legible projection.
The project, the result of collaboration between our technical team and architect Stefania Toro, required extraordinary precision work: from the creation of a scale model of the seat to the optical design of a beam that could adapt to the geometric constraints of the structure.
The installation, active since 2021, continues to be experienced, reported, and cared for by the local community, which has recognized it as an integral part of the urban space. The projections, visible on the ground in six different languages, reflect the multicultural composition of the neighborhood and amplify its inclusive message.
For the project coordinator, the success of the project is not only aesthetic; it is not just about light: "When two young people read the word 'community' translated into their language, they asked us if it was really for them. That's when I realized we had hit the mark."
""The real goal was not to illuminate the squares, but to give them back to the people. Light can be welcoming, it can be language, it can be identity. We chose to work with partners who were able to listen, experiment, and question themselves. In this regard, Spacecannon was not just a supplier; it was an integral part of the project, listening to us, guiding us, advising us, and putting itself on the front line. " Stefania Toro, Light Designer
In the Piazza Stella lighting design project, coordinated by Beatrice Bertolini and Marta Mannino, the intervention combined aesthetics, functionality, and interaction.
The perimeter seats house RGB projectors capable of generating colored shadows on the facades, activated by the passage of pedestrians via presence sensors.
Once again, Spacecannon did not limit itself to supplying the equipment, but also took part in programming the scenarios, calibrating the sensors, and fine–tuning a dynamic system that uses light as a narrative language.
The project required continuous multidisciplinary work, with night-time testing, resolution of technical issues, and constant adaptation to the landscape constraints imposed by the Superintendency.
This commitment and effort paid off and was recognized in many ways.
Lighting for Genova received international recognition, such as the UCI Award for Innovative Cities and official selection for the ADI Compasso d'Oro.
It has become a concrete example of how light can improve the quality of urban life, promote inclusion, and create places of well-being. It has also become proof that when designers and companies work together with openness and mutual trust, every space can become a story, a sign, an experience.
Spacecannon was tasked with designing and supplying an LED lighting system capable of focusing the inscriptions engraved on a hexagonal bench in the center of the square to project their shape onto the ground.
In this case, the challenge was to design a low-power illuminator that was sufficiently collimated to create perfectly legible inscriptions on the ground with light.
The illuminator also had to be weatherproof and resistant to possible vandalism.
The lighting fixtures proposed and installed were sized to achieve a maximum power consumption of 30W per light point with an emitted flux of approximately 3800lm at 2700K. In order to give the installation a dynamic feel, a timed relay system was designed to switch on different sectors of the hexagon every 30 minutes.
