An urban lighting project in Rende. The Commenda district.

The town of Rende is one of the liveliest economic, industrial and cultural centres in Calabria and southern Italy. Its importance is further boosted by the influence of the nearby city of Cosenza and the presence of the Arcavacata campus, home of the University of Calabria.

Rende is unique in Calabria in that the new city, developed along the Crati valley, is characterised by an orderly urban layout with wide, tree-lined boulevards, large green spaces and efficient amenities for citizens.

The municipality recently proposed a series of energy-efficient public lighting system projects for the Commenda district and several municipal squares and parks. 

The urban areas in question required a lighting system suited to the setup of the road system, which is characterised by a central traffic axis, pavements and side streets used for parking and accessing homes and shops. 

To satisfy these specific lighting needs, the pole-mounted version of the Twilight Copenhagen was chosen. This versatile urban luminaire has a modern minimalist form and is fitted with multiple innovative optics and luminous flux types.

The project also aimed to "redesign" the city nightscape by enhancing a number of urban scenarios with a range of luminaires to meet various requirements. 

These included certain squares, like Piazza Giacomo Matteotti and Piazza De Vincenti, where a decision was made to continue with Twilight Copenhagen luminaires fitted with PS (square street) optics to ensure street furniture consistency, as these spaces are also used for parking. Platea Pro projectors with wall washer optics were installed on the façade of the surrounding public buildings in order to illuminate the square below from above, while leaving the space below free for public events and concerts.

To illuminate Piazza Falcone and Borsellino and the two public parks in Via Salvador Allende and Via Modigliani, an urban lighting system based on pole-mounted Palco InOut projectors was used. This creates a continuum with a number of installations carried out in recent years in the municipality. Opti Beam optics were chosen to direct lighting very precisely on specific areas.

Some of the Palco luminaires are fitted with gobos that project images and writing on walls or tree canopies, creating a form of light that does not only illuminate but also transmits social messages or creative customised scenarios.  

Just like writers around the world who write phrases and paint artwork on city walls, light can also become a new urban tool that writes in the night and disappears in the day.