For the lighting design of the historical centre of Comacchio, near Ferrara, Italy, the municipality addressed to the experience of Giordana Arcesilai.

What the Italian lighting designer realized together with the engineer Thomas Weissenberg wants to be more than a simple project of urban lighting, but rather an attempt to show the heart of Comacchio as a jewel, to be emphasized for its special intimacy, without any excessive scenography.
The research of a suggestion that was suitable for the context suggested to use wall wash lighting for the area between the Canale Maggiore and the Canale Buonafede, with its streets, the alleys and the typical interiors of porticos leading to the canals.


The lighting aims at privileging the whole, because it’s in the sum of simple things, in the familiar image of the houses that you can find the true essence of Comacchio, more than in the single monuments.
The first project theme concerned the right fixture to use in this context, instead of the nineteenth century lanterns placed on the facades at an height of 3,5 meters from the ground. The design team opted for a lighting of contemporary inspiration and fixtures of small dimensions and minimum impact placed under the roof gutter line. The selected light source is a discharge lamp of low power (45W) and high efficiency with warm white light.

To give the project more suggestion, the colour has been used as well at some junctions and on the boat, a faithful historical reconstruction that is protagonist also by day in the Canale Maggiore. The selected colour is blue, because “it is seductive and makes us dream” and because integrates in the night without being unnatural.


A special attention has been paid to the bridges, that were emphasized through the light even in the past. The design team decided to light them placing LED linear lighting fixtures in the inner part below the arcade that is reflected in the water.

Giordana Arcesilai

Thomas Weissenberg