LUCE 332 | Page 21

CCT Flusso Ф 3.500 K 3.500 K 4.500 lm 4.500 lm 3.000 K 3.000 K 3.500 lm 3.500 lm 2.200 K 2.500 lm tramonto 22:00 2:00 4:00 6:30 alba Light4Life è un sistema progettato per creare le condizioni di una perfetta sincronia tra l’ambiente urbano ed i ritmi vitali di persone ed animali, attraverso la modulazione della temperatura di colore e dell’intensità del flusso luminoso in conformità al ciclo circadiano / Light4Life is a system designed to create conditions of perfect synchrony between the urban environment and the vital rhythms of people and animals, through the modulation of colour temperature and luminous flux intensity in accordance with the circadian cycle A new light for the City of L'Aquila April 6th, 2009. It was 3.32 a.m. when one of the most devastating seismic events that have affected our country in its most recent history struck the City of L’Aquila and the surrounding towns and villages, mercilessly razing houses, monuments, historic buildings, and universities to the ground. The outcome was like a war bulletin: hundreds of dead, thousands were wounded and displaced, a historical and artistic heritage that was one of the most prestigious in all of Italy, disfigured forever. More than eleven years after the tragedy, after a long and complex phase of reconstruction, L’Aquila is gradually regaining its identity. However, as it can be expected, in many of the neighbourhoods reborn from the rubble, that extra quid that can really give the perception of a city that, in spite of the past, is ready to re-project itself towards the future, has been missing for a long time. Ever since it took over the management of public lighting the goal of creating a smarter, safer, and more sustainable city that recognizes and enhances its urban tradition has been the common denominator of Citelum’s work in L’Aquila. The redesign of the facilities subsequent to the new urban layout and the replacement of the existing mercury vapor lighting with the latest generation of luminaires have obviously not fully grasped the scope and significance of the lighting and energy requalification project in the capital of Abruzzo. From the very beginning, the project itself was indeed conceived and developed with a much broader perspective: that of enhancing and giving back through light, to the population who came back to inhabit the city, the vital points of access and social aggregation of the city itself. A design spirit that has first of all inspired the renewal of the lighting of some of the city’s most representative architectural sites, such as the square of the Luminous Fountain: the intervention involved the replacement of the pre-existing artistic lighting with a three-level designed system that, through the use of 73 RGB immersion projectors and a control panel for the declination of different lighting scenarios, ensures the correct lighting of the monument from different angles. The spirit of L’Aquila’s public lighting project, however, has found its most complete expression in the energy efficiency measures carried out on the installations in the city areas of Piazza Palazzo and Piazza IX Martiri. These interventions, aimed at the luminous enhancement of the revitalized areas, included, in addition to a careful restoration of the existing elements of street furniture that had been severely damaged by the earthquake, the development of an innovative artificial light dimming system, called by Citelum Light4Life. Through the modulation of colour temperature and luminous flux intensity in accordance with the natural sleep-wake cycle (from colder tones closer to sunlight during the first hours of operation of the system, to warm, less intense colours in the middle of the night), this system creates the conditions for perfect synchronization between the urban environment and the vital rhythms of people and animals. Light4Life is the first system of its kind ever made in Italy, whose application has been made possible thanks to the use of the most advanced LED technology, the “Kruithof white LED engine” technology, made available by NERI. The system is able to guarantee, with the maximum visual comfort and the best colour rendering of the lighting, a greater environmental sustainability and a considerable reduction in light pollution and consumption, with all that this entails in terms of reducing public spending and health benefits for citizens: following the innovations made to the systems in Piazza Palazzo and Piazza IX Martiri, the Municipal Administration of L’Aquila was able to certify over 46% energy savings, with an equivalent reduction in CO 2 emissions into the atmosphere of 2.5 tCO 2 per year, corresponding to 5.44 MWh. Citelum’s experience in L’Aquila has been extremely significant in terms of our vision, for which technological innovation is to be considered a tool rather than an end in itself: a tool through which Cities can enhance their assets, responding effectively to the challenges associated with the growing urbanization, the consequent evolution of lifestyles, and the need to combine tradition and renewal. In the case of L’Aquila, however, there was an additional factor: the pride of having contributed, for a small part, to the rebirth of one of the pearls of Italy, a City that faced the trauma of the 2009 earthquake by finding a new starting point and an opportunity for improvement. LUCE 332 19