Christuskirche: architectural photography in Rome, Italy

  • The main vault of the church inconsistently lit by the outdated metallic iodide lamps – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    The main vault of the church inconsistently lit by the outdated metallic iodide lamps
  • The main vault of the church lit by the new LED lamps – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    The main vault of the church lit by the new LED lamps
  • Lateral interior facade of the church lit by natural light – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    Lateral interior facade of the church lit by natural light
  • Lateral interior facade of the church lit by the LED lighting devices – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    Lateral interior facade of the church lit by the LED lighting devices
  • Central nave, apse and main vault lit by the LED lighting devices – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    Central nave, apse and main vault lit by the LED lighting devices
  • The back facade and the pipe divisions of the organ under the new LED lighting – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    Central nave, apse and main vault lit by the LED lighting devices
  • Central nave, apse and main vault lit by the LED lighting devices – photo: Riccardo Budini / Looma

    Central nave, apse and main vault lit by the LED lighting devices

CLIENT

Arch. Del Bufalo

Auralight Italy s.r.l.

LOCATION

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Rione Sallustiano

PHOTOGRAPHER

Riccardo Budini

CATEGORY

Architecture – Lightning – Cultural Heritage

ADDITIONAL INFO

Special acknoledgement to Roman photographer Giuliano Del Gatto for his highly professional support during the assignment

YEAR

Jul-Aug. 2017

Case Study: Photographs of the new lighting installation for the architectural spaces of  the Lutheran Evangelical church in Rome, Italy

For this architectural photography assignment, the client – architect Del Bufalo / Auralight – required a color faithful photographic representation of both pre and post renovation state of The Christuskirche, a Lutheran Evangelical church in Rome, Italy built between 1910 and 1922 under direction of architect Franz Heinrich Schwechten. The architecture is said by various accounts to be the most opulent Evangelic church of all times. Evangelic churches are indeed best known for their sober and linear design.

The project of the Architect consists in a LED installation that replaced the outdated and unreliable metallic iodide lamps. The new device mounts ( wallwashers, floodlights and spotlights) now illuminate the interior spaces and the mosaics on the vaults, archways and the apse. Different lighting scenes are programmable with a handy app. The new neutral and uniform color temperature helps to faithfully render the colors of the pieces of the mosaic and marble slabs.

After having taken photographs of the poor lighting setup of the pre-renovation stage, I waited a couple of weeks for the construction works to complete and continue with the assignment, shooting the architecture under the light of the newly installed lamps. A simple referenced planning of the shooting helped to retrace the base points, useful to obtain later the same framing along the entire set of photographs.
In order to get an optimal wide field of view, on some frames I used the shifting feature of the lens and a parallax sliding track corrector to grab multiple shots in one take and recompose them together later on. The zenithal projection (first two photos) of the main vault is the most significant example of what the stepping shift technique is capable of.