People’s Perception of Urban Lighting in Public Space (original) (raw)

Methodological approach to creating an urban lighting atmosphere with regard to human needs

Spatium, 2020

The purpose of this paper is to assess how lighting correlates with human needs and emotions and to examine the implications for lighting design. The complex variables of urban lighting include practical, social, cultural and semantic elements of the urban environment. The research identified the most promising opportunities for using lighting technologies responsive to the basic levels of the human need for lighting. The dynamics of ?LIGHT-VIEWERATMOSPHERE? were applied in order to explore critical areas of interdependence. To determine the most critical areas, the hierarchical principles of A. H. Maslow?s pyramid of needs were adapted and applied to the data. The authors studied the interaction between the viewer and light technologies in order to determine the most likely enhancements to the emotional impact of lighting. The ?Expanded hierarchy of needs with regard to the presence of light? illustrates the issues considered here. The classification of societal needs is based on a...

Emotions and the Urban Lighting Environment

This article shows the main results of an empirical research about the relation between emotions and urban lighting scenarios. The focus is on the emotions experienced by participants in outdoor public spaces, such as pedestrian areas, parks, and other spaces. To understand subjects’ emotions, we followed a procedure of surveys using situation–response questionnaires in a closed, controlled environment with participants (N = 217) belonging to three universities of different countries: the University of Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico; Polytechnic University of Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain; and Via Domitian University in Perpignan, France. The set of 10 frequent emotions related to urban lighting mentioned by Calvillo Cortés was used for the study. Cross-cultural comparison of answers about the emotions felt by participants allowed us to classify the emotions in two types: the emotions commonly perceived among the three groups and the emotions particularly perceived by each group attributable to their cultural background. Based on that, we present conclusions about the relation between the emotions and the lighting parameters of the scene. In addition, we present a theoretical exploration of other researches related to subjective approaches on lighting, pointing out that emotions are not as widely studied as other psychological responses to lit places. This requires further conceptualization of the theoretical framework to increase the focus on the importance of emotions in the design of urban lighting spaces, providing more pleasant and healthy user experience.

Lighting Scheme as a Design Tool in Urban Identity: A Case Study at Bosphorus Region in Istanbul

2013

City lighting influence people’s aesthetic perception, enhance the quality of people’s lives. At the same time, it can promote development of the city, enhance the reputation of the city, has the profound significance to politics, the economy and the culture. Good lighting design can display the culture and the characteristic of the city and build a charm light world. Istanbul is one of the most important cultural, historical and commercial centers of the world. In the case study, historical and contemporary regions in Istanbul through the Bosphorus Strait will be discussed and analyzed considering lighting scheme as a “design tool” in the lighting master plan. Bosphorus region is selected for the lighting analyze because of having symbolic characteristics of the city. Lighting scheme will be analyzed according to the “holistic design approach”. From this point of view, lighting scheme must include all the components of outdoor urban environment, maximizing the value of the night an...

Adaptive Lighting Design as a Holistic Approach to Public Lighting

Public lighting altered profoundly the way we perceive and use nighttime urban space. It often is understood only as a technical issue rather than a human one, mostly based on photometric visual performance, leaving mostly out other human dimensions such as the psychological perception of light. Currently, public lighting is predominately directed to reducing energy consumption by means of the use of new technologies, such as adaptive lighting and LED light sources and the use of standardized lighting schemes. In this context, there is an opportunity to develop new lighting approaches that take advantage of the inherent flexibility of these systems to improve the relationship between user's well-being and energy management, contributing to a more sustainable design practice. Based on a research-through-design approach, a mixed methodology was used with a non-interventionist and interventionist nature. From literature review and professional experience, we considered that adaptability was an important technological and design factor to improve public lighting. Proposing the development of a user-oriented method that determines adaptive lighting scenarios for the most adequate and minimum acceptable lighting condition, for a specific user-space relationship, based on the user’s perception of well-being and the assessment of the perceived lighting quality of the scenarios. To support the implementation of the method, the Perceived Luminance Continuity framework was developed as a way to describe the adaptive lighting behaviour pattern. The gathered data - objective and subjective - provide an empirical basis for lighting professionals to design customized solutions. We hypothesized that the proposed method, would allow the design of more tailored and flexible lighting solutions. Allowing the adjustment of standards based on objective data for a specific user-space relationship. Promoting a more sustainable design practice that give an effective response to the user’s well-being and energy management, improving the nighttime experience. To test the hypothesis, an outdoor field experiment was conducted as a first case study, in the Village of Arraiolos, Portugal. A second experiment was carried out, aiming to test the consistency of the previous data and confirmation of the primary hypothesis. After analysis and statistical validation of the collected data, we can say that the tendency of choices in both experiments was very similar, meaning that the initial lighting scenarios considered as adequate were real and meaningful, with a high appraisal of lighting quality. It also showed that there was a relationship between the lighting configuration, visibility distance and the perceptual illusion of a fully lit space. Moreover, it shows that the majority of participants would accept adaptive public lighting, as common practice within the Perceived Luminance Continuity framework. Based on the results, we concluded that the proposed method is a valid tool for the design of adaptive public lighting solutions. Confirming the primary and secondary hypothesis, showing its relevance in the development of a more sustainable lighting design practice and improving the sustainability of the urban nighttime space.

Urban Lighting developments; From Lighting Supply to Creating an Artistic Text

2018

Light as an incorporeal element of urban landscape plays a significant role in the city activities during the night as well as the formation of the citys nightscape. Urban lighting in developed countries is considered as an interdisciplinary knowledge of the technical, engineering, humanities and art fields, which calls for joint co-operation among specialists. The formation and quality of social interaction and have been a popular topic, widely discussed in the civil societies. Since urban lighting is a special effort to facilitate the survival of urban social life, it is necessary to pay more attention to this issue, as the developed countries have benefited from its potentials. The current study argues that urban lighting has undergone dramatic changes since the arrival of the new era internationally. BBased on the formation aims and the citizens’s role as the target audiences, it can be divided into four categories: 1) Functional- Supplying light 2) Decorating and symbolizing 3) Creating artworks 4) Creating artistic texts In addition the role of citizens from the consumers and passive spectator has been changed to the producers, actors and active users. Thus, it can be concluded that the potentials of urban lighting have been promoted from a merely functional to an interactive art that is capable to satisfy social interactions which one of the main goals of urbanization. This paper is mainly focused to draw the attentions of managers, specialists and artists of the country to this new area. this may lead to make the advantages of the available potentials. Considering the global experiences it may also lead to the improvement of urban night landscape qualities by the application of the aesthetic and artistic approaches and renovation of the disconnected social relations and interactions arisen from the modern era. it may also give an insight to the healing the landscape system of our cities.

The Concept of Lighting Design by Creating Spatial Atmosphere for Human Health

IJMRAP, 2022

Light can be designed to give meaning and atmosphere according to the concept and purpose of the building. Humans have an inseparable attachment to light. For human life, light makes a significant contribution and has a role that can be seen and felt in physiological and psychological aspects. Physiologically, light greatly affects the performance of buildings that can be felt by humans through the sense of sight. Psychologically, light in space can create human perception that can improve human health. This is presented through color and material as a medium for the formation of light in space. Therefore, there is a need for spatial planning that can take advantage of the quality of light that has meaning for space users. The need for this research is to determine the quality of lighting that can affect human psychological health to improve health through the quality of lamp design. To obtain this information, it is necessary to conduct a building analysis that focuses on light quality. That way, it can find an indoor lighting strategy that can be used as a reference by paying attention to the layout and user perceptions that have an impact on physiological and psychological systems.

Day for Night": The role of artificial lighting in returning people to urban public spaces

2012

In many cultures the word "night", as it bears a meaning of "darkness" has been used negatively. All through the history the fear of mankind from darkness, as the world of unknown treats, still exists in the memory of the city dwellers. This study is concerned with the evolution of lighting design in public spaces. Although some researchers have devoted attention to outdoor lighting, they have devoted little attention to lighting as an urban design parameter. The purpose of this research is to understand how planning, developing and revitalizing of appropriate lighting design for urban space supports bringing people back to the public spaces of the city. Literature review revealed that for bringing back people to the city, not only a comprehensive lighting design, but also various factors to ensure the durability of public use has to be considered. Current dissertation pointed out; in order to be able to attract people to urban public spaces, set of rules and guidelines has to be applied to the lighting of public spaces which calls Lighting Master Plan. 13 factors divided into 3 categories have been suggested as the framework for evaluating lighting condition of a city or a region within the city. In conclusion, lighting conditions of the case study (Walled-City in Famagusta) have been evaluated, considering mentioned factors and solutions, and suggested for enhancement of public lighting in this region.

Adaptive lighting as a holistic approach to urban lighting design

This paper is based on the procedures and preliminary results – available by the deadline of this paper – of a PhD research study on urban lighting design, which is intended as a contribution to the design process, when considering adaptive lighting solutions for night-time urban pedestrian spaces. It uses as a case study Arraiolos, Portugal. Through a multidisciplinary approach, we are looking into psychological light perception, such as the illusion of perceived continuity of luminance.

Responsive City Lighting: Perspectives From Architecture & the Public Lighting Industry

This paper presents and discusses perspectives extracted from two interviews conducted during the experiments Urban Responsive Lighting. The two experts embody two different fields related to city lighting: architecture & public lighting industry. The representatives were invited to the test-site, where 15 LED RGB Park lamps, controlled driven by a wind sensor, mobile phone applications or by thermal camera tracking. According to the specialists are the social and aesthetical dimensions more interesting than the energy use cases and efficiency. This motivates an interdisciplinary discussion on applied technologies and responsive light design in the contemporary cities.

Importance of the color of light for the illumination of urban squares

Color Research & Application, 2019

The objective of this article was to establish the significance of parameters relevant for urban square illumination, particularly those related with the color of light. Performed using a questionnaire and with 154 architecture students as respondents, the survey showed that the 18 parameters can be divided into two groups. The first group of 13 parameters refers to the overall impression, influencing the basic and most important lighting aims like safety, security, orientation, visual comfort, and amenity, whereas the second group includes parameters related to lighting features which may negatively influence the overall impression. The four parameters directly linked to the color of light were evaluated lower than expected, indicating that architecture students were probably translating their attitude toward color in architecture to color of light, thus underestimating this lighting parameter. The survey results also showed that female respondents are more sensitive to parameters, which affect safety and security.