Shine a Light on Villa Adriana. Analysing and reconstructing the original lighting asset and the illumination design process of the architectural complex of Villa Adriana, Tivoli.

ended

The fellowship will be carried out in the Archaeology Area of the Department of Geography, History and Philosophy of the Pablo de Olavide University of Seville, with the supervision of Prof. Hidalgo Prieto. The project aims at analyzing and reconstructing the original lighting asset and the illumination design process of the outstanding architectural complex of Villa Adriana in Tivoli, Italy. Built under Hadrian’s reign, it counts more than 30 major building complexes. Given its importance and its good state of preservation the site has been studied in all aspects but the theme of light has remained neglected. Thanks to my background skills, new technologies for surveying, georeferencing, 3D reconstruction, virtual light reproduction, and thanks to the synergy among archaeologists, architects, IT experts, historians of science, lighting engineers, I will be able to approach this topic in a systematic way, addressing the technical and stylistic aspects of the lighting design praxis in its whole. The project will focus on three case-studies selected for their different features, functions and requirements: the triclinia halls, the Baths buildings, and the Praetorium complex. Their archeological remains will be surveyed with cutting edge technologies to gather accurate data, examined in relation to their context and imagined in their elevations through digital reconstructive models to investigate and reconstruct their original luminous ambiences. Though a secondment at the School of Specialization in Archaeological Heritage of Sapienza University of Rome and at Biblioteca Hertziana Visualizing Science in Media Revolution Research I will address the aspects related to lighting engineering and history of science. To verify, perfect and communicate the results achieved I will conduct a non-academic placement of 6 month at KatatexiLux, a firm highly specialized in virtual reconstructions and IT assisted research in the field of history of roman architecture and archeology.