whenlightswork

Light Collective contributed a piece of their ‘manifesto’ to the recent issue of D+A journal, where they write about their passion for light, what is the defining quality of bad lighting, or is there such term ‘bad lighting’? Through this article, we can see how light can help change our perception of our nighttime environment, contributing towards better public spaces for the community at night.

This brings to mind the question of the tropical city and our use of public spaces at night. In relation to our climate, we will tend to use our parks and public spaces later in the day, as compared to mid day when the scorching sun is upon us. Therefore, in our midst, there are pockets of spaces of spaces that simply diminish into the cloak of darkness. And, our visual landscape had transformed from the kaleidoscopic colours of materials, texture and activities, to being defined by the colour of light, or the illuminated. But, does the appearance of the city’s spaces need to evolve with time? Or should certain spaces be ‘reclaimed’ for people at night? That is perhaps addressed through guerrilla lighting, where we were trying to re-discover forgotten spaces at night, to make certain areas usable at night, or to re-establish the importance of certain areas for the community.