In Italy there has never been a legally recognized lighting design department in any college or university. There are simply some courses within the framework of the architectural or engineering departments and this explains why, today, the majority of lighting in the public sector, which is the most visible and prestigious professionally is mostly being designed by city services, electric companies, lighting manufacturers, architects or engineers.
When a city or a town opens a lighting competition for a lighting project that, by law, only people with legally recognized credentials can participate in, the competition is generally won by an architect or an engineer because there is no official lighting design curriculum and therefore there are no 'titled' lighting designers who can participate.
Architectural lighting has recently become very fashionable in Italy. Cities, castle, ruins, monuments of all types are being lit. But who is in charge of these projects? In Italy the Cultural Ministry, responsible for overseeing all these types of projects, fortunately is a severe guardian of our cultural and artistic heritage but without the specific professional figure of a lighting designer the important task of lighting is not subject to the control of people who are culturally and professionally equipped to judge its efficiency. The major museums give their lighting design projects to lighting manufacturers (and again mostly the same ones) who also furnish the fixtures for the 'project'. And once again the project is free of design costs. But who is there to check that these projects are really the best that could be offered? How is it possible to not recognize that the manufacturer that is going to supply the fixtures for a project cannot provide serious and objective lighting design projects'.there is simply too great a conflict of interests.
Studying in the USA, where it is possible to obtain a college degree in lighting design, is not a solution either because that degree will not be legally recognized in Italy. Those few times that I, for example, have participated in a public lighting project I have always had to appear as a consultant to an architect or an engineer, because legally a lighting designer is a 'non-existent' professional figure in Italy, In fact for many years the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, not knowing how to classify me simply listed me as an electrician!
THE FUTUREPersonally I experience lighting design in two ways in Italy'.as a simple citizen and as a lighting designer, officially a corporate member of the IALD since 1975. As a citizen I am irritated and confused by the evident conflict of interests in most of the lighting projects that I see. As a lighting designer I am astonished because I see projects which are full of professional mistakes that, however, aren't officially or publicly recognized by anyone simply because there isn't a recognized professional and influential body of lighting designers.
Nevertheless, it is a positive step that, taking the American IALD as an example, in the second half of the 90's a few lighting design organizations were founded in Western Europe. The most active of these organizations in Italy is the ELDA (European Lighting Designers' Association) and among its members are some Italians who do lighting design projects.
CONCLUSIONThe lighting design profession in Italy can only have a healthy development with the institution of college courses that will provide the necessary professional preparation and a legally recognized degree. And this will hopefully occur in the future. The majority of the so called lighting designers that are working today would slowly be substituted by more specifically qualified professionals and, within a period of time, they would be awarded first public commissions and then with this in their portfolio would be able to develop a group of private clients and the result would be a truly professional recognized group of Italian lighting designers. This perhaps (?) is the reason that many of the people that are today involved in carrying out lighting design projects are strenuously opposed to creating a degree course and a legal recognition'.at least for the next 200 years. However let's hope the best for the future!