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We had the pleasure and honour of asking the internationally renowned Italian lighting designer a few questions about her lighting project at the Antwerp Cathedral and her philosophy of light. Enjoy the reading.

A few years after the installation, the lighting design ideated by you and your team at the Antwerp Cathedral is still in the spotlight. What does a project of this level entail in terms of lighting design?
It was a complex job due to the size of the building (120 m high), and to the impossibility of freely choosing the placement of the luminaires. We also had to get permission from the owners of the nearby buildings to install the projectors. We had to struggle to get the cables where needed and to allow an easy future maintenance of the fixtures. Moreover, the client wanted to keep the existing product positioning. Another issue was due to the fact the church is located within the historic center of the city, surrounded by narrow streets from which only portions of the building can be perceived and with a quite distorted view. As far as the lighting design is concerned, we worked by superimposing general lighting levels, obtained with light projections from a distance, to a specific accent lighting created by fixtures installed directly on the building. All this required a very detailed 3D simulation work, careful on-site mock-ups, and the development of very accurate reports regarding the positioning of the power and control cables as well as the installation of the devices without piercing the stones or ruining the walls of the cathedral.

We are very proud to have taken part in this project with one of our flagship products, Jasper. What are the product specifications and design requirements that led you to this choice?
As I said above, the lighting projectors are located in fixed points, not always symmetrical and at a great distance from the building (50/60 meters). The Jasper luminaire was chosen thanks to its very narrow beam and powerful flow. With Jasper, we wanted to highlight the tower clock, located at about 80 meters from the ground, without excessively wall washing the rest of the tower.