Recuperare il valore storico-filologico del Cultural Heritage con Luce di Qualità. L’esempio della Chiesa di San Niccolò Oltrarno | Recovering the Historical and Philological Value of Cultural Heritage with Quality Light: The Example of the Church of San Niccolò Oltrarno

Abstract

Designing light and with light in historic buildings, especially in churches, is a topic that has not yet been addressed and is particularly complex. This topic is part of the search for correct lighting and therefore quality light, developed for long time by Prof. Carla Balocco of Environmental Applied Physics at the University of Florence (Balocco, Carbone, 2022; Balocco, Cecchi, 2020; Balocco et al., 2020; Balocco, Volante, 2019; Balocco et al., 2018; Balocco, Volante, 2018; Summa, 2025).
The lighting design proposed in this work is based on a fundamental concept, namely the design of light and with light for the enhancement of the historical-artistic heritage, for the recovery of the historical-philological value that this same heritage possesses. The light is conceived and designed through the optimal combination of natural light with artificial light, to recover the original shape and layout, the semantic and historical thickness of the work, of the building. The lighting project must therefore allow us to re-read, re-interpret, re-see and perceive with our eyes (of the mind) the historical memory that we have often lost (Balocco, Carbone, 2022; Balocco, Cecchi, 2020; Balocco et al., 2020; Balocco, Volante, 2019; Balocco et al., 2018; Balocco, Volante, 2018).