Francesconi Architectural Light illuminates the Pantheon of Villa dei Cedri in Colà di Lazise (Verona, Italy)

Villa dei Cedri is a thermal park surrounded by a stone wall and by the nature of Lake Garda in Cola di Lazise (VR), among rare plants and ancient trees. Hot thermal waters flow from the lakes, whirlpools and fountains surrounding lakes, whirlpools and fountains that come from two underground aquifers, respectively 200- and 160-meter depths. At the forefront of the concepts of classic thermal baths, Villa dei Cedri combines the well-being and health of people with the therapeutic properties of water and botanical properties. In the mid-nineteenth century, the park became the subject of expansion, reaching an extension of almost 13 hectares and currently, the elements that characterized it in the past are still found in the park: the presence of water with the path of the stream, the large lake with the artificial cave, the bridges, the neo-Gothic architecture of the Miniscalchi Spire, at the east gatehouse, and the neo-Romanesque ones of the Villetta del Mulinel, at the west gatehouse. Paths bordered by rocks lead to the belvedere with the handrails with tuff columns, simple but with well-kept details, to cosy and secluded corners, with statues and stone seats, to the suggestions given by the contrasts of shadow and light between the stretches of shady grove and the bright paths, open to the meadow.

Built with care – and respect for the surrounding environment – the Villa dei Cedri complex offers sumptuous hotel rooms, private residences, a country house, a beauty centre, a polyclinic, a sports centre and a vast indoor wellness area characterized by the new thermal pantheon – a recently built project – which looks like a swimming pool dominated by a natural cave. Here, lighting designer Mauro Missiroli of CF Studio used Francesconi Architectural Light fixtures to create lighting with emotional scenic effects of significant impact. The Inox 316L EGO and EGO MAXI RGBW LED lamps have been arranged in three concentric circles of large diameter, all having a unique address to control them via DMX protocol, as a single pixel so that each source can generate a different colour from the others, thanks to the program managed by a PC, thus creating an infinite variety of colours. The use of state-of-the-art multichip LEDs associated with colour-mixing lenses has made it possible to obtain unparalleled brightness and uniformity.

One of the design requests was not to provide watertight distribution boxes inside the pools. Therefore, it was necessary to create a longer than 30-meter wiring coming out of each projector and directed towards external technical compartments accessible from the water. To overcome the limit of DMX connections – requiring the “in/out” connection – the 8-channel splitters have been developed ad hoc, i.e., electronic boards dedicated to the DMX signal reconstruction and amplification. In this way, the sum of the cable lengths, which would have exceeded the total length of the DMX, was reduced only to the output length of each lamp.

The type of connections made with internal extractable connectors to IP67 boxes guaranteed a clean design. In addition, in this way, it is possible to operate the single lamp simply by detaching it from the complete system.

Home automation

Life3 S.r.l. (Verona – Italy)

Plant Engineer

Dielettric Srl (Verona – Italy)

Electrical Designer

Studio Tessen (Castelnuovo del Garda, Verona – Italy)

Francesconi Architectural Light