Relighting—Museum Ara Pacis

In honor of Emperor Augustus, who had victoriously returned to Rome, the Roman Senate commissioned a magnificent marble altar in 13 BC. The provinces had been pacified following decades of civil war and the Pax Augusta promised stability and prosperity. The deeds of the celebrated ruler and his family, vividly and three-dimensionally depicted on the enclosing walls of the Ara Pacis Augustae, were intended to become a model for the citizens of the empire. Since 2006, the Altar of Augustan Peace, one of Rome's most important ancient monuments, is housed and can be admired in the Museo dell'Ara Pacis in the vicinity of banks of the Tiber. The airy building designed by Richard Meier + Partners includes areas for temporary exhibitions in addition to the large glazed hall with the altar.

A total of 218 LED lighting tools from ERCO now illuminate the museum and its central exhibit of the ancient altar in new light. The aim of the conversion from halogen lighting to contemporary LED illumination was, in addition to improved energy efficiency, to increase the quality of visual perception of the monument and the associated spatial experience. The original lighting concept, based on the idea of 'positive contrast', was retained: it not only uses nuanced levels of brightness to create perceptual hierarchies between the exhibit and surrounding space, but also builds up additional contrast through the use of different color temperatures. General lighting with a warm white light color defines the space around the Altar of Augustan Peace. Carved entirely of Carrara marble, the monument itself is set clearly apart from its surroundings thanks to the powerful directional lighting with a neutral white light color.

A specific challenge for the lighting design in the central hall around the Altar of Augustan Peace was the changing daylight that enters through skylights and through the two fully glazed sides of the building.