The installation designed by Migliore+Servetto Architects for the grattacielo Intesa Sanpaolo in Turin to mark the occasion of “Luci d’artista” is a dynamic work in which light and reflections expand, turning it into a pulsating organism. The work was switched on for the first time on 20 November and is articulated as two elements shaped on the basis of the “alpha” symbol.

The repetition of this age-old character, which is charged with many positive elements and refers back to the origin of everything, generates a spiral movement shifting from the interior to the exterior of the skyscraper. Inside the greenhouse, the heart of the grattacielo, a wave of colours that are very sensitive to changes in the light invades the space, reaching heights of up to 16 m.

Thanks to an innovative technology, 100 light scales act like frames in a stop motion to create an iridescent vortex, which is brought to life and made to shimmer by the brightness emanated by the object itself, in dialogue with the constantly reflected natural light. This wave of dynamic light expands along the façade, where1 km of flexed fiberglass strings undulate on the 35th floor, as if suspended in the wind, endlessly repeating the alpha symbol, which acquires a strong narrative value thanks to the light.

“We have been working on individual elements, which were added to the space in order to create a single form and entity, and are therefore composed of densities and not different shapes.” As Ico Migliore and Mara Servetto explain, “The individual elements are composed in different scenarios, where transparency and lightness then become action, movement and light.”

Advanced silk-screen printing technology that uses an algorithm was applied to suspended methacrylate sheets to optimise the diffusion of the light, transforming transparent sheets into dynamic planes of light. In addition, a special dichroic film calendered on one side of each sheet pulverises the light into a hundred reflections within the space, bringing the installation to life during the day with a strong presence.

The lighting is based on LED sources with low energy consumption, and is controlled by a DMX system in order to create suggestive settings. In fact, the DMX system allows for a variation in the intensity of the light during the different moments of the day by modulating the brightness according to the level of light in the space, paying particular attention to the monitoring of consumption.

The light installation in its entirety thus acts as an iridescent presence that breathes and vibrates in synchronicity with the wind and the structure, allowing itself to be transformed by both the daylight and the darkness.

“It’s like entering the shape of a tree or the deepest depths of a complex organism. It acts as a natural landscape, where shadow, light and atmospheric elements come inside and modify perception. Indeed, perception is further varied according to the distance and prospective.

The design is composed of two installations, one external and one internal, which maintain a strong dialogue with the place and with the horizon for which they have been designed, as if they had spontaneously grown as new narrative organisms within the urban landscape.” Ico Migliore e Mara Servett

Design: Migliore + Servetto Architects