LUCE estratti LUCE 321_Tagliabue_Salone dei Cinquecento | Page 14

of numerous lighting design solutions for
the different functions of the Salone, analysed
and verified on 3D models with transient lighting
simulations (validated and calibrated with the
measured data) which enabled rapid and
effective calculations of the geometries that are
not at all simple, verification of the limits of the
parameters that are suggested in the regulations,
up to a realistic photographic visualisation.
The greatest risk lay in the intrinsic nature
of the project. To produce ideas, modify them,
adapt them, verify them, test them on site with
experimental measurements and numerical
analyses and simulations, and finally realize
them, is always a risky process: one’s personal
point of view is exposed, one’s know-how, and
one’s awareness and dignity, together with one’s
intellectual honesty, and finally one must face the
limit of interpretation. The collaboration of all the
parties that were involved and above all the deep
passion that animated this important challenge,
I believe, has been the secret of success.
Matteo Casanovi
Chairman of SILFIspa
What role did SILFIspa have in designing the
new lighting for the Salone dei Cinquecento?
This work shows the historical mission of SILFIspa
best. SILFIspa has made available to Florence its
know-how, commitment and professionalism
to spread the culture of light in general, not only
operating for the citizens’ safety by managing
and maintaining public lighting. The embryo
of this work was generated in 2011 when Claudio
Bini, former CEO of SILFIspa chose to develop
SILFIspa’s mission and proposed to the Mayor
of Florence, Matteo Renzi, a challenge that was
extremely difficult; in collaboration with Lorenzo
Targetti, the CEO of the company bearing his
name, an agreement was signed to start the
ambitious project to “give a new light to the
Salone dei Cinquecento for the Florentines and
for the town”. This challenge brought up the
question of the methodology of the project for
the work, and for this reason SILFIspa decided
to avail of the collaboration of the Department
of Industrial Engineering of the University
of Florence, represented by Prof. Carla Balocco, in
order to set up the first step of a logical sequence
of factors that were determinant for the actions
of the project; to know, to analyse, to decide
and then to design. The design work was long
and intense, but it was characterized by a strong
collaboration with our partners who were able
to set forth their best scientific and technological
capacities, making them available to the
enormous artistic and cultural value of the site.
Antonio Pasqua
Technical Manager, SILFIspa
What preliminary studies were carried out
before the final installation of the project?
The space of the Salone dei Cinquecento cannot
be rigidly classified according to specific
regulatory standards. It is certain that, due
to the flow of visitors, it is like spaces for public
performances, but the fruition of this space
is of many types: as a museum, for institutional
events and communication. When starting to
work in a space of this importance and value,
and faced with the idea of having to lay a hand
on anything, literally, one needs to rapidly put
aside any anxiety that makes one tremble at the
mere thought of the consequences of any serious
mistake or lack of attention. For this reason,
the approach was rigidly methodological from
the very start. A good knowledge of the site must
start from the relation of the site and those who
see it every day, working to protect it and for its
multiple uses. The previous lighting system may
have been obsolete from the point of view of
perception, energy-saving and maintenance, but
it had identified the only possible solution when
dealing with the restrictions of the Salone: the
choice of floor lamps. The new system had to be
“rigid”, fixed to the floor and/or the wall, and
that could not be shifted by third parties, and in
the last evaluation phase, it had to be integrated,
as much as possible, in the indoor space,
mimetically, in order to guarantee the desired
light orientation and the related luminous flux.
The area of the Udienza and the side opposite
the Udienza, instead, had a lower level of
criticality for installation due to the presence
of a stringcourse, which was already used for the
equipment of the old lighting system in the area
of the Udienza. The technical development
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