Monumental Lamp

Lucerna

Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Águila

‘Lucerna’ is a temporary urban installation designed by Manuel Bouzas and Santiago del Aguila for ‘A Cel Obert’ Architecture Festival 2021, which took place last fall in Tortosa, Spain.

With a height of more than 6 meters and a surface area of 55 sqm, this monumental-scale lamp occupies the main patio of the Purissima Concepció Monastery, radically transforming the 17th- century building through light and color.^[1]

As the authors explain, the project arose from the double meaning of the word ‘Lucerne.’ On the one hand, the term defines the upper openings that serve to, bring natural light into indoor spaces. But it was used by the Romans to name the early oil lamps that produced light in the dark.^[2]

The theme of the festival is to promote the heritage value of the historic center of the municipality of Tortosa, through the use of ephemeral installations. The project arises, according to the architects, from the lucerne thermal that denotes two concepts.^[3]

The proposal, therefore, explores the intersection between both notions and reinterprets in a contemporary key the classic hanging lamps that have crowned religious spaces throughout history, from Reims Cathedral to the Hagia Sophia mosque.

In collaboration with the lighting designer Ana Barbier, the authors build the project with six wooden rings, on whose inner edges an LED strip is installed.

Through a light structure of cables and tensors, the piece hangs from the cornice of the patio. A corrugated translucent skin of polyester resin surrounds the rings to sift and guide the light to the ground.

It is precisely here that a small staircase lifts visitors inside and discover the Cel Obert (open sky), cut out by the organic geometry of the piece.^[4]

1. MANUEL BOUZAS, SANTIAGO DEL ÁGUILA LUCERNA / https://divisare.com/projects/457660-manuel-bouzas-santiago-del-aguila-antonio-bouzas-barcala-lucerna ↑
2. Urban installation ‘Lucerna’ / https://arquitecturaviva.com/works/lucerna-en-tortosa ↑
3. EPHEMERAL BUT INTENSE. LUCERNA BY MANUEL BOUZAS AND SANTIAGO DEL AGUILA / https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/ephemeral-intense-lucerna-manuel-bouzas-and-santiago-del-aguila ↑
4. Lucerne: A monumental lamp in the Purissima Concepción monastery in Tortosa / https://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/979099/lucerna-una-lampara-monumental-en-el-monasterio-de-la-purissima-concepcio-de-tortosa ↑
5. monumental lamp installation lights up the main patio of a 17th century monastery in spain / https://www.designboom.com/architecture/monumental-lamp-installation-patio-17-century-monastery-spain-bouzas-del-aguila-03-25-2022/ ↑