60 km far from Milan, surrounded by the green of the nature and the blue of the sky, rises Campione d’Italia, an Italian enclave located in Switzerland, in the canton of Ticino. The strategic position, the beautiful landscapes and the attraction of the largest casino in Europe become complicit of magical and suggestive atmospheres. Campione d’Italia is nature, art, culture but also game and fun, expression of a tradition that continues to involve and inspire.

The structure, designed by the architect Mario Botta, is composed of large volumes covered in stone. These blocks alternated by large hollows are arranged radially to the lake of Lugano.

Inside, in the elegant rooms of the casino you can test your luck at roulette, chemin de fer, blackjack or trente-quarante. A large area, with entrance from the square on the lake, homes the new department with the most modern slot machines and the restaurant, with a wonderful terrace on the lake, allows to enjoy a world-class cuisine, accompanied by the notes of the best pianists and finest orchestras.

The lighting design project involved the entire complex.

Cannata&Partners realized a lighting system that provides both an ordinary and artistic-scenographic illumination. For both of them were employed Led light sources RGB which were placed so as to be more discreet and less invasive as possible. The main purpose in fact was to respect the architecture and avoid any form of glare for people using the nodal areas, the runs or primary accesses that are the zones of greatest aggregation.
The stone walls of the building dematerialise thank to stained lights which merge by creating lighting scenes. Green, red, yellow and blue lights slide on the stone, in the daps of the volumes, in the hollows of the structure and create a transparency effect as they were “telars” of a theatrical scene which overlap and change the setting.

A very great importance was given to the lighting of the entrance of the Casino at the first floor. Here a ceiling totally covered with Led Rgb works like a real interactive display able to change colours uniformly or partially, to regulate their speed, to mix them in order to get new shades and create movement or stroboscopic effects. This masterwork of technology was conceived to welcome the visitors in an exclusive manner and put them in the right dimension and mood.
The client, who is going to make a journey in the show, prepares himself to experience a kaleidoscope of emotions.

The big structure becomes transparent and at the same time visible from afar thanks to suggestive lights that enhance the front side disposed at 180° towards the lake. For the realization of the lighting project Filippo Cannata preferred to work on areas, surfaces and volumes, using the colours always in contrast between the outside and the inside and creating dynamism in the succession of lighting scenes. Even the large windows at the entrance were interpreted as they were empties and the white light coming out from them merges with the external colours, leaving unchanged their importance.

Light is employed as a means of expression and local communication. Each recurrence for the city is related to a specific light setting so the Casino, with its variations in tones and intensity, follows the passing of weeks, seasons and events. It is a lighting connected to the travel, to the dream which seems to allude to another world made of magic, game, fun, and at the same time turns the big structure in a metronome, a calendar of the urban light that marks the passing time.
In accordance to the principle of the environmental sustainability, that is a “must” in the philosophy of Filippo Cannata, the use of led fixtures reduces drastically the burden of the maintenance costs and at the same time it consents the energy saving.

In this project lighting has a triple value: it is functional to the activities of the Casino, gives a message of environmental compatibility and gives an added value to the architecture that is reflected in the lake before.

Mario Botta Architetto