TRIESTE
Christmas Video Mapping
2014/2015
/ Overview
During the 2014/2015 Christmas holidays, the facade of Trieste City Hall in Piazza Unità d’Italia became the monumental screen for a 3D light story by Luca Agnani Studio. The show, reported by local and national press, was projected every day from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. until 6 January 2015, transforming the urban heart of Trieste into a large animated architecture.
/ Project Details
Name: Luminous Christmas in 3D
Client: Christmas public event / Municipality of Trieste context
Location: Trieste City Hall, Piazza Unità d’Italia
Date: December 2014 – 6 January 2015
Technique: Architectural 3D Video Mapping
Artist: Luca Agnani Studio
/ Challenge
The project was created on a large and highly recognizable architectural surface: Trieste City Hall, facing one of Italy’s most scenic squares. The challenge was to build twelve minutes of visual storytelling readable from a distance, respecting the geometry of the building and transforming windows, frames, volumes and facade rhythm into narrative elements.
/ Visual Development
Facade storytelling
The mapping uses the City Hall facade as a narrative grid: architectural lines become guides for animations, virtual openings, perspective transformations and light effects.
Christmas urban stage
Piazza Unità d’Italia becomes an open scenic space where the audience watches the light story directly in the city center, during the busiest period of the holidays.
3D production workflow
Sources report about one month of computer work and a 3D production carried out by specialized technicians, with Luca Agnani credited as the project’s visual designer.
/ Solution
The solution is an architectural video mapping intervention built on the precision of the building’s electronic mapping and on the luminous power needed to cover the City Hall facade. The result is a public story of more than twelve minutes, in which light draws, decomposes and recomposes the building, bringing to the square a visual language close to major European light festivals.
/ Technique
Multi-projector setup
According to press reports, five latest-generation video projectors with a total power of about 80,000 ANSI lumens were used for the occasion, managed through Watchout servers.
Architectural calibration
The calibration followed the real structure of the building, aligning animations and digital content with the axes, openings, frames and proportions of the facade.
Daily public projection
The projections were scheduled every day from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. until 6 January 2015, with the building animated at nightfall before the audience in the square.
/ Context
The press described the project as a 3D video show on the facade of Trieste City Hall: ANSA reported more than twelve minutes of footage and light effects, while Il Piccolo reported the use of five projectors, Watchout servers and about 80,000 ANSI lumens. The project confirmed Luca Agnani Studio as one of the most recognizable Italian practices in architectural mapping, after its selection at Moscow Circle of Light and before later international works on historic buildings, squares and monuments.