2020 – ongoing
Client: Sicily Region
Architectural Restoration Project: Guicciardini & Magni Architects
Exhibition Design: Guicciardini & Magni Architects
Lighting Design: Arch. Massimo Iarussi, con Massimiliano Ravidà
Electrical Systems Project: Ing, Gianmario Magnifico, with Mauro Garuglieri
Project of Water and Mechanical Systems: Tecnoengineering Srl
Structural Project: Ing. Leonardo Paolini

The building complex of the former Vittorio Emanuele II Hospital in Catania is the subject of a powerful redevelopment project, for its transformation into the Museum of the Etna Volcano.
The project of the new museum aims to create a “machine of knowledge”, which in addition to traditional exhibition spaces, contains dynamic spaces with a public vocation, which open the museum to the urban context, promoting a cultural ferment on the territory.
To meet these two needs, the design of light uses two different and complementary approaches.
In public spaces with dynamic use, the pre-existing architectural volumes remain unchanged, leaving the vaulted ceilings visible: here luminaires have been used that seek a dialogue with the space that hosts them and are not hidden from view. On the contrary, in the exhibition spaces, the subject of more massive set-up interventions, the luminaires are integrated into the architectural volumes, and remain hidden from view, in order to enhance the objects on display, which will appear as “illuminated with their own light”.