Light as an instrument of visual renovation

After 2000 years, the private rooms of emperor Augustus and his wife Livia are brought back to life by Linea Light Group through its solutions of lights and shadows.

The House of Augustus and the House of Livia are part of the imperial complex assembled by Augustus on the Palatine hill, considered the center of power of the Roman Empire.

The lighting project, which began in late 2012 and completed in the summer of 2014, was created with the aim of reviving the original balance between light and shade in different rooms and enhance the decorative elements. An exquisite example of figurative well preserved Roman art, composed of vivid colors, charming floral themes, architectural illusory perspectives and picturesque theater projects.

The innovative system is mainly integrated in the ceiling of the new roof: a series of grooves accommodate a group of special LED spot, with various optical rays and temperatures of different colors.
Through the regulation of the angle of each spot and the use of chromatic variations, lighting facilitates the interpretation and the visual reconstruction of the monument.
Distribution and color temperature create a visual hierarchy: in private rooms, for a more intimate atmosphere, they were used products with warm light, while in the public house were used articles that use a natural temperature to simulate the daylight that came from the arcade.

The two famous frescoed rooms (Room of Pines and the Room of the Masks) in the private house, that can be visited only from the outside, are floodlit from linear LED modules, with asymmetrical optics, installed along a scaffold suspended as part of the ceiling.
A low glare LED downlights was put at the center of the scaffold to graze the floor mosaics. Inside the public domus, however, were installed linear LED modules that highlight the decorations with oblique light.

Inside the House of Livia both natural and artificial lighting recalls the sunlight that once penetrated into the courtyard. In the frescoed rooms, a range of low-glow downlights illuminate the frescoes to allow an excellent perception and glare-free light of the details of the paintings. The same system was used for the triclinium just opened, with magnificent frescoes on a Pompeian red background.

All elements of the lighting system have DMX remote driver and are controlled via touch panel.