Bologna seen in another light. Squares, streets, doors, porticoes, both in the center and on the outskirts, have been shining in a new light for some months. The one designed by the architect Lorenza Golinelli and the engineer Alberto Ricci Petitoni of the «I-DEA luce» study and which during 2023 led to the replacement of more than 3,500 lighting fixtures and the installation of 680 newa requalification resulting from four months of surveys and analyzes and a year of work concluded at the end of 2023.
Ports, streets and squares of Bologna in a new light
The project, wanted by the Municipality, was developed in agreement with the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape and financed thanks to the national operational program «Metropolitan Cities 2014-2020»: 14 million invested divided into three quadrants, east, west and centre, around ten large plant engineering companies were involved. The most attentive Bolognese have already noticed the improvements made in recent months under the most important arcades of the city, from the Pavaglione to San Giacomo, as well as in the squares, from San Domenico to Santo Stefano, finally free of the network of overhead wires and light sources impacting the monuments. And again: also all ten doors of the avenues they now enjoy warmer and more homogeneous lighting than in the past.
Forty monumental sites have changed lighting
I am 40 monumental sites on which interventions have been made, including the cathedral of San Pietro in via Indipendenza, while 16 linear kilometers of porticoes have undergone the light restyling. The redevelopment also involved some green areas. Among the new lighting fixtures, the «Bird» lamp stands out, which can be seen in the side bars of the porticoes, with two distinct sources, one upwards (warm white light of 2700 K) and the other downwards (which directly illuminates the street with a less warm shade of 3000 K ), thanks to its wing shape similar to that of a large bird which usually rests on the electricity wires or on the aforementioned bars.
Different solutions based on situations and needs
Otherwise, for example for the Pavaglione portico, they were maintained existing systems, strong in their important historical and artistic value, subjecting them however to careful restoration. Objective of the plan: to make the historic center of Bologna more functionally, energetically and aesthetically efficient, with a 77% energy saving, equal to 387 tonnes of CO2 per year. The intervention is part of a broader initiative aimed at equipping the entire city with LED sources.
To understand the difference between before and after you can visit the small exhibition set up in the Salaborsa library, «The light of Bologna», with shots by the Bolognese photographer Oscar Ferrari and the installation by Babai Studio can be visited for free until June 25th.
The guided tour to see the “new” city
And on Thursday evening in Salaborsa there was first the official presentation of the concluded project with the councilor for public works Simone Borsari, the designers and the companies involved, and at 10pm the guided night tour in the most significant places of the city in which they participated almost 150 people.
