Petrucci Marco Italian Lighting Designer

Born in 1982, Marco Petrucci graduated with a degree in Industrial Design from the Sapienza University of Rome and a 1st-level Master’s degree in Design and Technologies of Lighting from the Polytechnic University of Milan. Immediately after graduating, lighting design became his vocation. In Florence, he expounded his university thesis at Targetti – a leading brand in the lighting design sector, developing an innovative modular lighting system. During his Master’s degree in Milan, he met a true master of traditional Italian lighting design, the architect and globally renowned figure Piero Castiglioni. From that point onwards, a trusting and priceless collaboration arose, which has now lasted over fifteen years.

His first project as a Lighting Designer from 2006 to 2015 was the transformation of the Milan Portello District urban district, a 385.000 m² project. The architectural project includes three large units that make up an integrated settlement of residential, commercial and public service facilities, including a new public park. During this pivotal experience, he worked with several internationally active professionals, including Gino Valle, Cino Zucchi, Guido Canali, Charles Jencks, and Andreas Kipar.

2006-2012 saw his first collaborations with architect Gae Aulenti for the lighting design of internal spaces in the San Francesco d'Assisi airport in Perugia. His many projects carried out with the "Lady of Architecture" included the 2007-2012 interior lighting design of Branciforte Palace in Palermo. Following that, again with Gae Aulenti Associati, was an urban redevelopment project between 2009 and 2012, the subject of which was the Tilane Municipal Library in Paderno Dugnano, and, between 2011 and 2012, Palazzo Vetus, the oldest historical building in the city of Alessandria, which required the design of both the façade and interior lighting.

Between 2007 and 2009, he took part in the architectural lighting design of the new Barcelona terminal, the "El Prat" airport, designed by Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill. "Clarity, few materials, minimalism, and simplicity have enabled the fusion of functionality and aesthetics in a push for excellence, where there’s no room for the ornate or superfluous". These were the words of Ricardo Bofill during his inauguration speech. The opening of Barcelona Airport Terminal 1 consolidated the airport’s position as one of the top ten in Europe.

In 2010, he met the master cabinetmaker Pierluigi Ghianda, for whom he created the lighting of a bookcase for a private home in Milan. In 2013, he oversaw the lighting calculation of the Ghianda Exhibition at the Triennale di Milano in collaboration with Pierluigi Ghianda and Studiolabo. A display of joints, from the simplest to the most complex, including the Kyoto table, exhibited at the MoMa in New York and featuring 1705 joints and a texture of 1600 square-shaped holes that play on light and shadows.

Between 2010 and 2012, he carried out the lighting design project of one of the most important global UNESCO cultural heritage sites - the Imperial Fora in Rome, dealing with the Roman Cultural Heritage Department. In the heart of Rome, the archaeological area stretches along the street of the same name, between Piazza Venezia and the Colosseum, bordering the Roman Forum complex. The itinerary begins with the entrance at Trajan’s Column and ends at the Forum of Caesar on Via Bonella (Via dei Fori Imperiali).

Between 2011 and 2013, he carried out a lighting project that played constantly on the tension between electric light and daylight for the Sancaklar Mosque in Istanbul, collaborating with architect Emre Arolat. In 2015, ArchDaily awarded this project as the year’s best religious building and it was included among the top 40 buildings by the Mies van der Rohe Award. Also between 2011 and 2013, he worked with the Istanbul-based firm on the Bodrum Vicem Luxury Compound project in Bodrum, Turkey, while from 2014 to 2019, he developed a design for a hotel integrated into a public museum made up of restored archeological artifacts, the Museum Hotel in Antakya.

Between 2011 and 2013, he took part in the urban transformation of the Albere district in Trento, built on the site of a former Michelin factory. Specifically, he dealt with the museum lighting project for the MUSE Science Museum, designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, whose keywords were openness and transparency. Geared towards sustainability through energy savings and quality materials, this project obtained LEED Gold certification.

Between 2011 and 2014, he carried out the lighting design project of Aman Resorts, situated in the prestigious location of Palazzo Papadopoli in Venice, a sixteenth-century patrician building frescoed during the eighteenth century by Giambattista Tiepolo, working with the Denniston architectural firm set up by architect Jean-Michel GATHY. The building has been transformed into a "7-star" hotel containing 24 suites with different architecture and furnishing, a spa, lounges, and a lobby.

Between 2011 and 2015, for the company EXPO 2015 spa, he developed the lighting masterplan for the Milan EXPO, where light was used as a design and scenographic language rather than simply to serve visual tasks. For the World Expo in Milan, he designed a site-specific installation in Bergamo, entitled "Light Itineraries EXPO 2015". "Light balls" in different colors and sizes were randomly placed on the grassy terrain, forming a colorful luminous sculptural cluster.

From 2013 to 2016, he developed the lighting design for the Grand Council Chamber in Fribourg, situated on the first floor of the Hôtel Cantonal, a 16th-century building originally designated for the grain market, is the headquarters of the Grand Cantonal Council, with the firm Ruffieux-Chehab Architects. Between 2010-2017, the Swiss architectural studio had requested lighting consultancy for the interior and facade lighting of Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Geneva.

Between 2013 and 2017, his leading project was a place of worship, the Viboldone Abbey in San Giuliano Milanese, an FAI census property, in collaboration with architect Elisabetta Michelini. The Abbey of Saints Peter and Paul is made up of a church dating back to 1176, where 14th-century Giottan-school frescoes almost entirely cover the walls, and an adjoining Prior house, now partly allocated to guest quarters.

In 2014, he designed the office lighting for the ENI Headquarter in San Donato, where three horizontal office towers connecting to one another stretch around an empty space, the square, which is the symbolic heart of the project, and to the public green area surrounding the whole complex, designed by Morphosis Architects, set up by Thom Mayne, while SCE Project was involved in the integrated design.

In 2016, he oversaw the museum lighting for the large retrospective Isgrò Exhibition, involving multiple sites in Milan, including Palazzo Reale, the Gallerie d’Italia in Piazza Scala, and Casa del Manzoni, which commemorated the work of Emilio Isgrò, one of the greatest and most esteemed contemporary Italian artists, dealing with the curator Marco Bazzini. In 2018, he carried out the lighting project of the Private Museum of the Emilio and Scilla Isgrò Institute, where integration between the lighting and architecture formed the basis of the lighting project. In 2019, he was called upon to work with the concept artist and painter, as well as poet, playwright, and director Emilio Isgrò and the exhibition curator Germano Celant for the lighting design of the Isgrò Exhibition at the Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice.

Between 2017 and 2022, he was part of the team created by the architectural firm BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, the contest winner for the expansion of the existing establishment of the San Pellegrino Flagship Factory in San Pellegrino, whose collaborators included Atelier Verticale, ARUP, and GAD. Later, he collaborated on the lighting project for City Wave in Milan, from 2020 to 2022, with the London-based firm BIG, the contest winner for the design of the fourth tower at City Life. For the systems design of this project, he worked with the firm Manens-Tifs s.p.a.

Between 2018 and 2021, he put lighting design at the service of art by planning the lighting layout of the underground museum of the Luigi Rovati Foundation Etruscan Museum in Milan, the work of architect Mario Cucinella. The project involved the expansion and refurbishment of the Bocconi-Rizzoli-Carraro building on Corso Venezia, within walking distance of the Modern Art Gallery, the PAC gallery, and the Natural History Museum, which was transformed into an Etruscan Museum and also plays host to a series of scientific and transdisciplinary educational activities.

Method: designing the light, first what to do and then how to do it

First of all, there are no rules for good lighting and there’s no technology that can help with lighting design. Rules in themselves are a preconception that removes us from a correct design approach. We believe that we need to think about the lighting by first observing the space. If observed and understood, each place suggests to us how it wants to be illuminated. Thus, for the lighting design of the future, more than technology, rules, and standards, we need a strong development in the ability to observe architecture and those using it.

To view architecture correctly, it’s essential for the light to comply with the mechanisms of our complicated but effective visual tool: the eye.

This is made up of elements that can adapt to the changing light conditions of an environment. It has different sensitivities according to the intensity and frequency of the electromagnetic wave that strikes it, and it is greatly bothered if it finds itself in places with high lighting levels. 

For these reasons, in a design, a careful characterization of the lighting environment becomes instrumental, such that the visual activities and tasks for which the place is designated can always be carried out. We mustn’t only think about the amount of light but, above all, the quality of light. 

The notions of lighting deal with several quantitative aspects of the light phenomenon but fail to solve fundamental issues such as reflections, shadow quality, and textures. By focusing substantial resources on the calculation of illuminance or on candela distribution, less attention is paid to the hard-to-measure parameters, such as the quality of shadows and visual comfort.

Humans spend most of their time under electric light and, for this reason, lighting must be designed carefully, keeping in mind that aesthetics always come after ethics, first thinking about what to do and then how to do it.

Lighting Design: Light that communicates with spaces

Light is a service – in cities, it enables people to move about in visual comfort and safety, within sites and along pathways – it helps make sites and destinations recognizable – it reveals architectural forms, capturing interest and conveying emotions – inside buildings, it enables functions to be carried out, improving the quality of living – in museums, it highlights works of art - in showrooms, it brings colors to life and greatly contributes to capturing the attention of potential customers.

Lighting does not mean dispelling the darkness. On the contrary, it adds a new, stronger, and more engaging qualitative value to the situation. Indeed, by creating chiaroscuro effects, different perceptions can be sparked, making an interpretation of the space profoundly personal. For this reason, when the rule is to astonish and alter the spaces, careful design is fundamental to prevent the distortion of people’s use, customs, and ways of living.

Lighting design should take several fundamental aspects into account: the control of and distribution of light in the space, and the sizes and formal appearance of fixtures.

Perhaps it’s best if lighting design begins to communicate with spaces and is no longer seen as an option to be added at the last minute or to manage superficially. Without the evolution of design thinking, the technology, standards, and light sources by themselves can do very little.

Skills

Scope of work
Client and project team interaction. Lighting design service, from the concept phase until the construction. Time planning, strategy project goals, budget identification.

Lighting concept
Objectives definition. Historical, architectural, urban, environmental and anthropological analysis. Suggestions, photographic renderings, sketches, schematic drawings, lighting test images, fixtures sample, report of intent.

Develop the Preliminary design phase
Concept development. Photographic or 3D renderings, lighting analysis, illuminance values, choice lighting fixture, budget control estimated, energy assessment. Preliminary lighting design layout DIALUX, CAD or BIM.

Develop the Final design phase
Preliminary project development. Ordinary and emergency light calculations, data sheets, installation details, electrical loads, budget optimize, LEED energy efficiency, electrical layout, suggested scene settings, tender documents, technical and regulatory reports. Executive lighting design layout DIALUX, CAD or BIM.

Construction phase support
Technical consultancy for works management. On-site inspection visits and assistance. Lighting values survey, luminaire samples checking, setting control system switching, value engineering. Mockup support creation. Assistance with suppliers, installers and local authorities.

Lighting Fixture Design
Design and prototyping of lighting fixture. 3D photometric development. Photographic renderings, industrial product engineering, electrical/electronic components, CAD graphic layout. Analysis and research of new materials and technologies