TOWN CENTER GLURNS, SOUTH TYROL
During the Middle Ages, the smallest of South Tyrol’s eight cities was a trade center in the region. Today, it presents itself as the “jewel of the Alps”. The completely preserved city walls, towers, gates, streets, and walkways radiate the fascination of a bygone era. The town center of Glurns – also known in Italian as Glorenza – has in fact been renovated, but it has hardly changed in character since the sixteenth century.
Although they were not historical, the mercury vapor lamps that were attached to the walls showed themselves to be in need of being changed out in 2015. Several providers were invited by the leaders of the city to present their products for this very particular setting. Within that context, the connection between, on one hand, technological functionality and flexibility with, on the other hand, a conscious design language was the deciding factor for the solution from ewo.
Not only did the new city lighting reduce the energy consumption considerably, the transition from lantern-shaped lamps to our FA- System LED luminaires also provided for a new aesthetic clarity, above all else as a result of the elimination of separate fittings. The natural variety of the shapes and colors of the buildings in the small city are emphasized with simple, succinct accents. Nothing is superfluous – that also holds true with regard to the distribution of the light: the original positioning of the light sources was kept, but side streets were in any case less brightly illuminated than main streets and squares. Thus shadings on the lens optics that were specially designed for this project ensured that less light met the wall. And no light was shined upward, so the nighttime sky above Glurns remains dark.
Project: STADTZENTRUM GLURNS
Product: FA
Location: GLURNS, ITALY
Client: STADTGEMEINDE GLURNS
Project Year: 2015Photography: OSKAR DA RIZ