projects | Viabizzuno progettiamo la luce

at the 12th international architecture venice biennale, mario nanni’s light project for the padiglione italia, conjugates past, present and future. the title of the edition directed by pritzker prize kazuyo sejima is 'people meeting architecture': a complex theme that underlines the need of architecture to link up with people, in order to become an instrument for social dialogue. the light project responds to this challenge: it’s a narrative light, communicative, technical and emotional at the same time. the exhibit design is solved as a simple and essential display that, even if announced by a great hermetical title 'ailati. reflections from the future', it meets the visitors of the italian pavilion throughout a great argumentative clearness. italy is spotlighted in this exhibition as if seen through a mirror, on the edges actually. the pavilion has been divided in three macro areas: 'amnesia. italian contemporary architecture 1990-2010 ' (past); 'lab italy' (present); 'italy 2050': dedicated to a show of italian future architecture. three special light fittings have been designed as tools at architecture service and not as invasive objects: a correct light to emphasize the strategic spots of the exhibition’s path, divided in the three macro theme areas: present, past and future. a special wand of light, provided with three different colour temperature led, can handle the white tone desired, keeping the tempo of the area dedicated to displaying the present projects; graphical signs hanging from the ceiling draw in the air a light code that reads the contents below. this space has been conceived as a workshop: drawings of the projects, models and pictures have been displayed on an expanse horizontal display cases, as to suggest the dimension of the work desk crowded of working papers. yet again a thin cabled profile is meant to draw the corners of the architectural space, defining the architecture throughout its shadows. a special composition of the c2 profile has been studied to create a sign, the guiding light that brings the visitor in front of the display that recounts the history of the past biennales; a light, contemporaneously narrative and architectural, blemishes the ceiling with a curious black hole into which stories and crucial phenomenon cross, distinguishing the current situation. the space dedicated to the future is visionary and suggestive, illustrious by a more dynamic and mysterious light that comes down from the ceiling indicating the significant spots of the path, emphasizing the suspension of the exhibition volume.