Maintenance and energy optimization of lighting systems for the improvement of historic buildings. A case study

A proper lighting is vital to improve, from an artistic point of view, the volumes and the decorative surfaces of the architectural heritage considered valuable. When properly lighted monumental buildings can become, in the eye of those watching the panorama offered by the historic centre, an essential part of the city. Nowadays for the design planners dealing with the improvement of buildings, whose architectural design should be valorized, the real challenge is to combine the lighting artistic requirements with a scrupulous economic management in order to limit the energy demand and to respect the environment.This case study examines the lighting of the monumental façade and of the Cloister of St. Peter in Chains placed right in the Faculty of Engineering of Sapienza University of Rome. The site is characterized by the remarkable late Renaissance steps at the entrance and the imposing colonnade of the Cloister where, in the centre, there is a well thought to be a work by Michelangelo. The complex requires a type of lighting able to combine the necessities determined by its exertion from the Faculty with an architectural optimization. In order to reach such result some efficient sources of light, with high visual performances and a proper service life, were used.