Starting on 16th of May 2022, the International Day of Light, 190 participants from 38 different countries, gathered to celebrate the LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International) 20th anniversary. Elected officials, urbanists, lighting designers, city planners and engineers discussed the future of urban lighting.

Visions for the Future of Urban Lighting from 4 distinguished keynotes
The two first keynotes, Florence Lam, Fellow and Global Lighting Design Director of ARUP, and Mark Major, Senior Partner of Speirs Major, shared visions of people-focused cities and emphasized the importance of balance between light and darkness to conserve the qualities of the night.

Florence Lam – Shaping a sense of place for a regenerative future
As cities grow and are regenerated, a systemic approach is needed to deliver the long‐term health and wellbeing of people, place, and planet, harmonizing the symbiotic relationship between humans and biodiversity. Florence’s keynote offered a pathway on how evidence-based holistic and innovative design approach may contribute to achieving sustainable and regenerative future cities.

Mark Major – Return to the Dark City
Mark advocates that the 20th century notion of using light to extend the day should be replaced by the idea of celebrating the qualities of the night. This is not only in response to environmental concerns such as the need to save energy, reduce light pollution and waste and to protect biodiversity, but also to help improve the well-being of citizens. But lighting is an important social, economic, and place-making tool. Its presence helps keep us safe and secure while also creates identity, character, and ambience. Mark gave insights about how cities might achieve the right balance between light and darkness in the future.

On the next day, Amy Lamé, London’s Night Czar and Leni Schwendinger, Creative Director, International Nighttime Design Initiative shared their concerns about how to enhance life at night, with public lighting and how to reimagine more welcoming night environments.

Amy Lamé –Lighting for Public Life at Night
In London, holistic nighttime strategies are being created that encompass everything that happens between 6 pm and 6 am. This includes public lighting that has to be designed so that people feel welcome and safe in the city. Amy presented a set of very comprehensive research and reports, that not only help to show the inequalities and change the perception of night, but also contribute to making informed decision on nighttime planning. She also helped to discover the partnership approach and collective actions that have been put in motion since 2016 and more about London’s life at night, taking the audience on a journey through London to meet with nighttime Londoners.

Leni Schwendinger – Power to the imagination
Making references to her over 20 years of research and experience, Leni encouraged attendees to think about future effects of the warming climate, which will engender radical change, and especially more public life lived during the cool, darkened hours. She explained how more imagination is needed to have a real human approach to the night, e.g., focusing on key nightshift workers that must be regarded as space users.
She shared how urban lighting should involve more closely-knit collaborations between designers and citizens. Leni urged the audience to join the movement to transform after-dark experience into joyful, poetic, progressive scenarios, and envision welcoming night environments as dynamic, colorful, pathfinding, and satisfying spaces – in all the right places.

Suorce of information: https://www.luciassociation.org/sparking-the-future-of-urban-lighting-highlights/