The balance between conservation, enhancement and smart lighting

Last November, ASSIL, in collaboration with AIDI, promoted a conference on lighting works of art, museum installations and churches, as part of Training in Light 2025. The lighting of cultural heritage, works of art and museum installations is indeed one of the most complex and challenging fields of lighting technology. It is not just a matter of “illuminating”, but of finding a delicate strategic balance between the primary need for heritage conservation and the need for proper aesthetic and narrative enhancement for the public.

The rigour of the standard: conservation as a top priority

Proper design in museum environments starts with adherence to strict conservation standards and constraints. The risk of degrading exposed materials due to unsuitable light sources is regrettably real.

Professionals in the field must know and apply:

• The Ministerial Decree of 10 May 2001 (Act of Guidance on Museums), which establishes the technical-scientific criteria for lighting systems, touches on aspects such as exhibition, conservation, documentation and safety, and the conservation constraints relating to exposure to light sources.
• UNI EN 16163:2025 – New European Standard: it provides guidelines and procedures for the choice of lighting in indoor environments. Its transition from Technical Specification to European Standard marks an important consolidation. The standard dictates the procedures for creating suitable lighting for conservation purposes, balancing aesthetic and display aspects, including recommendations on minimum and maximum acceptable illuminance levels, and taking into account the characteristics of LED light sources.

Strategic design: knowledge, context and storytelling

Going beyond mere conformity, light must serve the narrative. The design methodology requires an in-depth knowledge of the building (historical, artistic, morphological) in relation to its context, including environmental or urban. Light, indeed, becomes an essential tool for storytelling, alongside digital technologies, to tell the story of the work, from its conception to its current use. This approach manifests itself in complex interventions, where light is a dynamic element to be designed in relation to different scenarios.

Examples such as the Sistine Chapel and the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi – which represent the pictorial art of the fifteenth-sixteenth and thirteenth-fourteenth centuries – demonstrate how light must be designed for the needs related to functions other than the strictly museum one.

Smart lighting: the conservation and efficiency ideal ally

The ability to obtain “different scenarios” and to precisely control the luminous fluxes is the ideal point of contact between the needs of cultural heritage and the potential of Smart Lighting.

The adoption of smart lighting systems offers decisive benefits:

1. Conservative Precision: Smart systems, based on LEDs – whose features are now integrated into the new standards – guarantee punctual and dynamic control of intensity, ensuring strict compliance with the maximum illuminance limits imposed by conservation constraints.
2. Dynamic Flexibility for Storytelling: Smart Lighting allows the programming of dynamic lighting scenarios, essential for storytelling and to adapt the atmosphere to different functions (e.g. a daytime museum light, a stage light for an event or an intimate light for prayer).
3. Energy Efficiency: Intelligent management based on use (presence, time) allows a drastic optimisation of consumption, aligning the enhancement of the asset with the objectives of environmental sustainability.

The integration of these advanced technologies is already underway in the most recent projects, such as the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi and the Church of the Gesù in Rome, built in view of the Jubilee of 2025, confirming that the future of lighting for cultural heritage is connected, dynamic and informed.

For professionals in the sector, it is essential to train on these standards and the most advanced methodologies to face the challenges of a field that requires maximum competence and responsibility.

ASSIL