FROM 'LIGHTING DESIGN' TO 'DESIGNING FOR THE LIGHT' IN THE '20S

摘要

In the 1920s, scientific progress and technological advances in the field of lighting technology were ready to undertake a more knowledgeable approach to "lighting design" in architecture, moving beyond the empiricism of early applications. The in-depth knowledge available of the elements of vision and perceptive phenomena made it possible to develop advanced design methodologies aimed at satisfying symbolic and evocative requirements and, eventually, to imagine installations with a purely decorative effect. This led to real "light design", launching the unitary and coherent lighting projects that only became universal in the early 1930s. The first calculation models were developed, starting with simple arithmetical operations and leading to complex graphic mechanisms capable of being easily extended to lighting technology projects, resulting in the creation of "designs for light". These designs were subsequently able to overcome the ancient dichotomy between the graphic and algebraic approach by developing graphic-numerical methods combining mathematical rigor with the rapidity of graphics. In this way a varied repertoire of methods for solving technical, functional and scenic problems was gradually drawn up based on the different modelling of luminous phenomena.