New lighting brings the Castle of Moncalieri back to life

The Castle of Moncalieri is found on a hill outside Turin and has been, since 1997, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Destroyed in April 2008 by a violent fire, today it has a new lease on life thanks to a restoration promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and of Tourism – Polo Museale Regionale del Piemonte.

In collaboration with architects Beppe Merlano (Archeostudio) and Maria Carla Visconti (SBAPTo), Davide Groppi designed a dynamic lighting system that tells a story and describes a place that unfortunately no longer exists. For this restoration project, Groppi conceived an intermittent lighting system that highlights the current state of the building, which was extremely damaged by the fire nine years ago, and shows how it was before the tragic event. “The lighting between the curtains and the walls,” explains Davide Groppi, “and the light present in each single room are dynamically and cyclically shaped so as to create the right levels of contrast and, therefore, the chance to see what exists and what pre-existed.”