For the five hundredth anniversary celebrations of Christopher Columbus´s great achievement, the city of Genoa redeveloped the old port area for urban uses, connecting it directly to the old city centre. This frees plenty of areas from the disorderly encumberment of buildings that have gradually accumulated down the centuries, and also regenerates and enhances old architectural complexes: the walls, Porta Siberia, the hub of Porto Franco dating back to 17th century, the cotton warehouses, the old customs office. Among the constructions built were the Aquarium and Grande Bigo, a landmark for the new area holding up the tensile roof of the new Piazza delle Feste and housing a panoramic lift; the exhibition facility on the ship “Italia” was also fitted out. The area´s lighting was designed bearing in mind the twin nature of the place restored to the city and directly connected to the city centre without betraying its old function as a “port factory”. To underline this area´s new function, various “white” lighting sources were chosen (mercury vapour, halogen with a dichroic reflector) to break with the surrounding port areas which mainly feature the ⌊yellow” colour of sodium vapour sources. Moreover, it was decided to create as many different lighting appliances as possible to serve every imaginable situation, and opt for relatively small lighting devices to underline the area´s urban connotations (in contrast with most port squares usually lit by towers fitted with large lights).