Performance iN Lighting was selected as the lighting development and consultancy partner for the Church of San Giorgio in Braida, providing customised solutions specifically designed for the building, in harmony with the space and the works themselves.
The Church dates back to the 16th century and is one of the most important churches in the city of Verona, so much so that it has been called a ‘miniature picture gallery’ due to the quantity and value of the works of art it contains. With the aim of giving new life to the works of art and at the same time allowing the use of the spaces and the celebration of the liturgy, the Diocese deemed it necessary to renew the general lighting system. The existing system had in fact become inadequate over time, especially in terms of energy and maintenance. Performance iN Lighting helped to provide new solutions that would avoid invasive actions within the architectural context of the church, while achieving real energy – and therefore economic – savings while preserving the existing electrical system.
The lighting concept was designed to align perfectly with the Renaissance architectural layout of the church. GUELL 2 projectors with intensive 3,000 K concentrated optics installed on the cornice illuminate the floor below, a unique jewel. The geometry of the floor represents a mirror-image of the dome, enhancing a large circular composition with five concentric circles of increasing size. A dialogue rich in symbolic meaning is thus created between earth and sky, through light.
One of the objectives of the intervention was to faithfully restore the colour tones through an effect similar to that obtained with halogen lamps, while avoiding ultraviolet and infrared emissions, thus protecting the integrity of the precious works over time. Precisely for this reason, Performance iN Lighting opted for the architectural floodlights of the FOCUS+ series implemented with LEDs in a special version both in the warm colour tone of 2,700 K and in Ra>90 colour rendering. In addition, to make the luminaires even less visible, they have been painted in a matt RAL 1013 colour (a derivation of pearl white) that further integrates them into the ambience.
In order to provide general lighting that would allow the faithful to follow the liturgy from the stalls, while having a view of all the works contained in the church, dozens of FOCUS+ 3 with medium rotosymmetric optics were used in the large nave. The installation of the projectors required special care to preserve the stone cornice, and involved the development of specially designed adjustable anchoring brackets so that each of the projectors could be precisely oriented despite the irregularities of the wall.
The decision to maintain the existing electrical system was dictated by the objective of preserving the structure and protecting the masterpieces from any invasive intervention. As a result, the number of products used has been increased, but thanks to the energy savings guaranteed by the LED sources, the total energy consumption has been reduced.
Overall, the church is now lit with only 3 kW, fully realising the initial request (before the intervention, the halogen lamps alone illuminating the two large canvases by Farinati and Brusasorzi consumed over 2 kW). Moreover, the system provides a series of lighting options that allow the spaces to be used both during liturgies and guided tours.
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Project credits
Client: Diocese of Verona
Lighting system: PERFORMANCE iN LIGHTING
Photo Credits: Renato Begnoni
