Palazzo della Luce, Turin

Palazzo della Luce in Turin was built in the first half of the twentieth century in a Juvarrian-inspired style. It was commissioned by the Savings Bank of Turin as part of a wider clearance and renewal of the Sant’Eustachio block begun after 1910, intended to replace inadequate bank premises and to establish a new urban frontage facing the Lamarmora Gardens. Street-level entrances bear decorative motifs referencing the founding institute, and the exterior was modelled on the city’s grand civic palaces.

Planning and construction took place across the 1910s and 1920s. Works began after a design commission in 1915; the shell and elevations were in place by the early 1920s while interior fitting continued later. In 1925 ownership passed from the bank to the Piedmont Hydroelectric Company, which completed internal fittings, added a raised terrace before the main doors, and by 1928 made the palace its general management headquarters.

The building became an early centre of Italian broadcasting. Radio operations were based at the palace and the official launch of Radio Torino took place in the main reception hall on 11 February 1929, the same day the Lateran Pacts were signed; the palace retains an anechoic chamber that was used for radio auditions during this period.

Wartime years brought damage: Royal Air Force bombardments in 1942 affected the building’s fabric. From 1942 to 1949 parts of the palace were occupied by the Francesco De Silva publishing house, founded by essayist Franco Antonicelli, who worked with national radio on the cultural programme Terza pagina. Near the end of the Second World War, on 30 April 1945, Olivier Guinet, a French young man who had joined the Resistance, was killed by a sniper in front of the palace; he was later honoured with a national Gold Medal of Military Valor in 1970 and a municipal commemorative plaque.

State changes in the energy sector led to a transfer of ownership in 1962 when the industry was nationalised and the property passed to ENEL. In subsequent decades a collection of contemporary paintings was assembled to decorate the interiors. Around the turn of the 21st century the palace entered the real estate market and was acquired by an investment fund that considered conversion to a hotel; a later acquisition in 2010 led to a careful restoration that preserved the historic exterior while reorganising interior spaces for high-end residences, representative offices and service facilities.