Hines Italy's Christmas Greetings on Torre Velasca Milan
ESA engineering provided technical lighting design support for Hines Italia’s Christmas Greetings 2022.
Between two Milanese icons, Torre Velasca and Spiga 26, two art installations, conceived by Pietro Terzini, dialogue with each other, addressing a symbolic message to the entire city.
The initiative, “a Natale basta il pensiero,” captures the attention of pedestrians, passersby, visitors and citizens. As soon as the sun goes down, Torre Velasca illuminated by distant projectors, lights up from its 106-meter height as a graphic engraving on the facades, “WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT?” Across the street, from the experiential space of Spiga 26, echoes the wisdom of a statement, “THE BEST THINGS ARE NOT THINGS.“
The two sentences, emphasized by the scenographic visual impact in the strength of their eloquent conciseness, emotionally involve in interactive dialectical participation, and with a logical process reminiscent of Socratic maieutics help to reflect and mature, in a particular time of the year, the most ethically consonant response.
ESA engineering’s role has been to balance technical difficulties with the artist’s aesthetic vision, developing feasibility studies, identifying possible solutions or temporary strategies, and performing on-site test. With technical expertise, in collaboration with other professionals, the team analyzed and selected the most suitable position in terms of angle, distance, inclination, and power intensity to provide a clear reading of the projected text, reinforcing the emotional effectiveness of the visual message. Finding the perfect orientation in the middle of a dense urban fabric, locating possible rooftops in the surrounding context to install the luminous bodies, and planning the most effective spot for mapping have been some of the overall challenges.
ESA is proud to have respected time and budget constraints, achieving the best possible result:
