The Human and Social Dimension of Urban Lightscapes

147 Pages·2020·4.184 MB·English

by  Daria Casciani

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN APPLIED SCIENCES AND
TECHNOLOGY  POLIMI SPRINGER BRIEFS
Daria Casciani
The Human
and Social
Dimension
of Urban
Lightscapes
SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences
and Technology
PoliMI SpringerBriefs
Editorial Board
Barbara Pernici, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Stefano Della Torre, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Bianca M. Colosimo, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Tiziano Faravelli, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Roberto Paolucci, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Silvia Piardi, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
More information about this subseries at http://www.springer.com/series/11159
http://www.polimi.it
Daria Casciani
The Human and Social
Dimension of Urban
Lightscapes
123
Daria Casciani
Department ofDesign
Politecnico di Milano
Milan,Italy
ISSN 2191-530X ISSN 2191-5318 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs inApplied SciencesandTechnology
ISSN 2282-2577 ISSN 2282-2585 (electronic)
PoliMI SpringerBriefs
ISBN978-3-030-57164-1 ISBN978-3-030-57165-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57165-8
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To my Masters and to my beloved ones.
To Achille.
Preface
In recent years, the human and social dimension of urban lightscape has become a
new theme of interest of both research and design practice in the lighting domain.
The focus of this book is to explore new criteria and characteristics of the human-
and social-scale lighting by considering human psychology in the design of the
lighting of modern nocturnal cities. The book identifies a new area of lighting
designresearchandpracticethatfocusonthenocturnalurbanexperienceofpeople
in terms of emotional and cognitive perception, along with behaviours to achieve
more accessible, sociable, hospitable and sustainable cities.
The recent technological advent of solid-state lighting (SSL) and digital control
systems is envisioning new possible intelligent applications for urban lighting
connected to the wider concept of smart cities. This technological transformation
could drive a radical and meaningful change of the contemporary cities at night
when adding social value to the urban experience. By exploring the human- and
social-scalelightingdesigncriteria,theurbanlightingdesignpracticecouldprovide
good-quality lighting: visual performances, visual comfort, security and safety
perception, visual ambiance and social experiences. To assess these psychological
aspects of lighting design from the human and social perspective, this book iden-
tifies and compares new tools and research methodologies for knowledge acqui-
sition when tackling with complexissuesabouttherelationship oflighting,people
and city.
Book Content
Thefirstsectiondealswiththetopicofhumanandsocialurbanlightingthroughan
extensive literature review that spans from urban, lighting and environmental
psychologystudies. Chapter1reportsabriefoverviewoftheimportanceofpublic
spaces for well-being with the purpose to situate the social dimension of urban
lighting in a broader theoretical and cultural context. Chapter 2 presents a critical
and systematic literature review about the human- and social-oriented lighting
vii
viii Preface
criteria of urban outdoors. Chapter 3 reflects on the methodologies to explore the
affectiveandsocialappraisalsandbehavioursoflaypersonsconcerningthelighting
design and luminous atmospheres of the nocturnal urban environment.
Thesecondsectionofthebookpresentsaseriesofapplicativestudieselaborated
by assessing, analysing, simulating, designing and testing urban lighting parame-
ters, towards an in-depth understanding of the influence of urban lighting in terms
of luminous atmosphere perception, positive social affect, social enhancement,
accessibility andhospitability ofurban lightscapes.Chapter 4presentsaprocedure
for the analysis, design and post-installation evaluation of an in-situ experience
of the human-scale urban lightscape meanwhile Chap. 5 presents the research
results related to the influence of lighting on impressions of public outdoor spaces
through a virtual experience. Chapter 6 explores two case studies of interactive
experienceprototypingthathasbeendesignedasexperimental lightingprobes and
has been conducted both in the field and in the laboratory. Chapter 7 moves from
design research to design practice showing the results of a practice-based/
educational experience focused on the development of social-oriented lighting
solutions in a specific urban context of application.
Intended Readership
The book aims to extend the knowledge about the spatial experience of human-
scalelightinginoutdoors,proposingamultidisciplinaryqualitativeandquantitative
methodology to be applied in the lighting design and research and influencing
lightingpracticeandeducation.Indoingso,thebookisdedicatedtoeducatorsthat
seek to unlock the traditional perspective of urban and lighting design disciplines,
to lighting design researchers that need to feed their activities with new methods
and inspiration, and to lighting practitioners, both professionals and students, that
aim to deepen their knowledge about the human and social dimension of urban
lightscapes. The book explores the topic both through a theoretical background,
methodsandtoolsandwitharesearchthroughdesignapproach,totestthetheories
through applicative research and design examples.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements to my past and present colleagues from Politecnico di Milano
fortheirinspiringacademicconversationsandinterestinginterdisciplinaryresearch
studiestogether:Eng.Dr.FulvioMusanteforhiscontagiouspassionaboutlighting
engineering and Associate Professor Chiara Colombi and Federica Vacca for their
trusting encouragement toward the complexion of this book. I would like to thank
the Assistant Professors Harm Van Essen and Elke Van Ouden from TU/e
Preface ix
(Intelligent Lighting Institute) for having hosted and collaborated to the lighting
pilot conducted at the Markthal Living Lab. My gratitude goes to all the partici-
pants of the studies. Finally, I would like to thank warmly my beloved son for his
patience during the development of this work.
Milan, Italy Daria Casciani
Contents
1 City and Sociality at Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 The Human and the Social Nature of the City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1.1 The Social Function and Quality of Urban Spaces. . . . . . . 2
1.1.2 Qualities Supporting Successful Urban Social Places
by Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.3 Human-Scale Urban Public Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Urban Planning After Dark: Night-Time Lighting Design . . . . . . . 7
1.2.1 The Importance of Urban Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.2 The Human and Social Scale Lighting in the Urban
Night-Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2.3 The Importance of Urban Darkness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.2.4 The Role of the Designer of the Urban Night . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 The Human-Scale Urban Lighting Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1 The Visual Experience of the Urban Night-Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.1 From Sensation to Perception of the Luminous
Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.1.2 The Psycho-social Perception of Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2 The Human and Social Urban Lighting Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.1 Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.2.2 Wellbeing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.2.3 Ambiance and Urban Beautification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2.4 Relationship/Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.2.5 Environmental Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
xi