Publications, talks and media

New lighting of Lisbon's city hall inaugurated

On the night of 8 October 2026 the new lighting of the facade of the Paços do Concelho, Lisbon's city hall, was inaugurated. It was an eight-year project: it began in 2018, when Diana Delnegro was responsible for lighting the city's monuments at the Município de Lisboa, and reached its inauguration with her own studio, after she had followed the works from start to finish as the project's author, together with the Fundación Iberdrola España, which funded it.

The inauguration was attended by the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, the president of the Fundación Iberdrola España, Jaime Alfonsín, the Executive Chairman of Iberdrola Energía Internacional, Hugh Elliott, and the deputy mayor, Gonçalo Reis.

The facade now has two lights. The permanent one is sober and reads the lioz limestone, the colonnade, the pediment and the balcony from which the Republic was proclaimed. The second is made of colour scenes for the city's moments: flags for state visits, the whole building in a single colour for a cause or a club's win.

For years, every celebration meant mounting temporary equipment on the facade, which sometimes damaged the building. The colour is now part of the installation and leaves no mark on the stone.

First night visit to the Main Cloister of the Convento de Cristo

On the night of 24 September, during the European Heritage Days, the Main Cloister of the Convento de Cristo in Tomar reopened to the public with a night visit. It was the first time the cloister was seen under its new lighting, designed by Diana Delnegro.

The local paper O Templário called the new lighting one of the most striking moments of the evening, and wrote that the light brings out the galleries, the columns and the architectural detail.

The cloister by Diogo de Torralva and Filippo Terzi is one of the major works of the Renaissance in Portugal. The light was designed to read it as architecture, from the galleries to the depth of the arcades, and is part of the conservation and restoration of the cloisters, funded by Portugal's Recovery and Resilience Plan.

The work continues until the inauguration: the light scenes are still to be fine-tuned, and the Manueline window of the Chapter House is still to come.

Diana Delnegro at the 4th Astrotourism Webinar

On 25 November Diana Delnegro took part in the 4th Astrotourism Webinar, «The importance of the night sky for tourism and for communities», at the invitation of Turismo de Portugal.

She spoke about public lighting and its part in preserving the night sky, a subject of growing weight for astrotourism, for the quality of life of communities and for environmental sustainability.

It was an occasion to discuss how lighting can, and should, be thought out strategically, responsibly and in line with the best international practice.

Museum lighting: a guided tour of the MACAM project

Architectural lighting is far more than a matter of taste: it is an instrument of spatial and emotional transformation. At MACAM, in Lisbon, that principle served to build a visual narrative that respects the works of Almada Negreiros, Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso and Vieira da Silva, and carries the visitor through an immersive experience.

Every lighting project is singular and asks for an approach of its own. At MACAM a concept of temporal evolution was developed, with different colour temperatures marking the route and underlining moments of the display. The result is a continuous reading of the space that respects the work and makes a complete sensory experience.

In museums the influence of light is direct: poor lighting compromises the reading of a work, and well-studied lighting amplifies the experience of whoever stands before it.

The project took hours of research into the lighting conditions of each gallery. High colour-rendering LEDs (CRI above 95) and adjustable control systems balanced safety, the preservation of the works and the freedom to make distinct atmospheres: Gallery 1 with delicate, warm light that guides the visitor without shadows or unwanted reflections; Gallery 2 cooler and brutalist in character, suited to the subject of some of the works.

Close collaboration with the curator Adelaide Ginga was essential in aligning technical and aesthetic criteria, so that the light both reveals the works and orders the experience of the visit.

«Light transforms the space and leads the observer, creating a narrative that completes the work of art», says Diana Delnegro. At MACAM the lighting is not merely functional: it is a dialogue between science and art, in which every choice of colour, quantity and direction rests on technical knowledge and on experience on site.

Interview with TV Bandeirantes, from Porto Alegre

Diana Delnegro interviewed by TV Bandeirantes, filmed in 2015, on heritage lighting and on lighting design in Portugal.

Opening the international lighting conference in Rio de Janeiro

On 26 August Diana Delnegro gave the opening lecture of the International Seminar on the Lighting of Monuments and Historic Sites, held on 26 and 27 August in Rio de Janeiro.

Organised by the Casa Oswaldo Cruz, the seminar brought international specialists together to discuss the challenges and the tendencies of lighting listed buildings and cities, across two days of dense programme.

Her lecture took up the importance of light in the legibility and the protection of heritage and in urbanism, and showed projects of the last twenty years in the field: why and how lighting alters and raises the perception of architecture, of spaces and of cities. The seminar was broadcast live on the Casa Oswaldo Cruz channel.

A guided tour of the MACAM Museum with Diana Delnegro

On Saturday the 8th the architect and lighting designer Diana Delnegro led a guided tour of the MACAM Museum, presenting the architectural and museographic lighting designed for the building.

The tour was an occasion to explore how light orders the route through the display and transforms the perception of the works, revealing nuances invisible in daylight.

The project, the result of long hours of study and technical tuning, sought the ideal position for each light source so as to serve paintings and sculptures by masters such as Almada Negreiros, José Malhoa and Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso.

More than to light, the aim was to build a visual narrative, guided by a palette of colour temperatures that shift subtly from room to room, following the different periods held in the collections. The visitor is carried through a sensory and temporal journey, in which light mediates between the art and the eye.