A Northern Light/Collective Architecture scheme for three tower blocks in Castlemilk, Glasgow. Using LEDs, the installation creates a decorative splash of colour while also giving a visual representation of the local weather outlook for the following day, via internet broadcast RSS feeds based on meteorological data
Lighting supplement Opinion
On the periphery A
Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton call for a lighting revolution for the people living in the ‘sodiumised’ world of out-of-town estates
t the Professional Lighting Design Convention in 2009, French lighting designer Roger Narboni declared: ‘Architectural lighting is dead.’ His argument was that to move forward, the emphasis in lighting design should be on creating beautifully lit spaces for the people who do not venture into the city centre, but live in the ‘sodiumised’ world of social housing. Architectural lighting for its own sake certainly
needs a radical rethink. For years we have been improving city squares and retail areas, and lighting the façades of town halls, churches and museums. This has all been for the greater good of the night- time exterior environment. But while helping to facilitate economic regeneration, this approach has only affected a minority of visitors and locals as the majority of people don’t live in these spaces. Why does a town square, barely peopled at night, deserve to be better lit than a housing estate that is always peopled at night?
44 CIBSE Journal November 2010 City centres have become such a focus of lighting
aims that they have led to the development of a whole sub-category of lighting design: the urban masterplan. Masterplans look at the lighting design of a city centre in a cohesive way, incorporating all elements of architectural lighting, road lighting, street lighting and sustainability, but rarely cover the outlying elements of a city or cross over into housing. The global rise in light festivals in the past few years has also focused on city centres. These events are largely commercially driven and
again used to boost the night-time economy. Our progression as a profession should include moving away from city centres to the periphery where people actually live. It’s rare that we get a chance to use our skills to make the everyday world a better place. Surely the home environment of the mass of ordinary people is the fi rst place we should be improving before moving on to the places we share. Of course, it boils down to hard cash. What is chosen as the showcase and ‘face’ of a place would
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