Flashing blades: the lighting requirements for fencing

The necessity for lighting guidelines to be rewritten is becoming increasingly obvious, particularly as far as daylighting design is concerned. In this study, current lighting recommendations for the sport of fencing are examined alongside the typical environmental conditions in which it has been practised. A detailed review of the visual environment of a daylit building designed in the '30s, Luigi Moretti's fencing academy in Rome, demonstrates that a broad range of criteria need to be taken into account when lighting requirements are defined.