Underground Light

By Editorial Staff - 2 April 2026
Secco Sistemi has participated in the project

The entrance reads like a statement of intent: to restore the importance and monumentality once associated with subterranean environments, spaces designed to encourage reflection and introspection. At Gallerie d’Italia in Turin, designed by AMDL Circle to transform the once banking halls of Palazzo Turinetti, visitors enter from the inner courtyard via a monumental staircase that descends below ground to the main lobby. Natural light accompanies the descent, filtering from above through a circular skylight set into the piazza surface. Underground spaces, light and shadow form the guiding principles of the restoration and adaptive reuse led by Michele De Lucchi’s studio, giving rise to a cultural venue for photography, video art, historical archives, temporary exhibitions and more. The exhibition galleries are concentrated in the building’s subterranean levels and along a vaulted gallery within the arcades of Piazza San Carlo. To make these inherently spatially dramatic spaces functional, the design establishes a continuous dialogue between natural and artificial light, between new openings and respect for the historic fabric, and between contemporary technology and the materials and forms of the past. On the first basement level, for example, modular educational spaces are illuminated by a large window overlooking the Sala dei 300 hall, while the Manica Lunga, a long gallery conceived for classical photography, leads to the third underground level and the Intesa Sanpaolo Publifoto Archive, visible through a large, glazed wall.

To maximize natural light in the shared spaces – while reserving carefully controlled artificial lighting for the exhibition galleries – the design introduced new glazed openings, beginning with doors and windows. At this point, Secco Sistemi’s contribution comes into focus, with the installation of its OS2 75
galvanized steel system with a thermal break, used both for the full-height entrance opening and for the arched openings of the piano nobile levels. The profiles, finished in a dark tone to complement the stone and other architectural materials, feature clean, essential lines that recall the iron frames of the past. Thanks to the slim profile sections, natural light is maximized, even in large-format doors and windows.

Esthetics, tradition and innovation converge in the choice of window systems, as they do throughout the project: technology and meticulous craftsmanship define both OS2 75 and the new Gallerie d’Italia – elegant and restrained.