Illuminating Urban Zones of Extended Activity: An Exploration into Temporal Profiles of Urban Functions, Public Transport and Artificial Lighting. Artificial light and the colonization of the night

Résumé En

The availability of cheap and uncomplicated artificial light is an indispensable prerequisite for this process: it allows usto turn night into day at the flick of a switch. Though the colonization of the night and the availability of cheap light are fairly recent developments, the incessancy of many activities meanwhile seems widespread and, together with brightly-lit urban nights, accepted as normal. Despite their close interdependency, empirical research of the temporal extension of activities in cities has, so far, neither granted lighting nor the relation between nighttime activities, outdoor lighting and urban rhythms much attention (Henckel et al, 2013). Against this background, our work aims to combine three – so far largely unconnected – research strands: the colonization of the night, the temporal structure of cities, and the use of outdoorartificial light. It contributes to understanding the temporal profiles of the nighttime city, and the potential lighting offers as a source of information to this end. As the temporal profiles of urban lighting are largely uncharted territory (noteworthy exceptions are Bülow, 2013 and Dobler et al., 2015), we are testing new ground methodologically by using time lapse videos as a tool.