Exploring the social dimension of urban lighting

The traditional idea of urban public lighting is based on a double approach: on one side, economical savings and technical performances based on quantitative data, on the other side, the creative contribution of lighting practitioners focused on enhancing urban amenity and strengthening the night-time experience of the city. More than this, a group of lighting designers is shifting its practice from the architectural to the social and experiential layer of the city: a social oriented lighting design has emerged as an interesting approach aimed at providing more accessible and sociable cities but also contributing to a deeper sustainable urban lighting. This paper presents a procedure for analysis, design and evaluation of the reciprocal relationship between lighting, city (urban environment) and people. In addition to this, it presents the exploration of the influence of variables such as lighting colours, lighting spatial distribution and lighting behaviours, dynamic and re-active in a urban real space. The research aimed at investigating which new relationships can be defined between citizens and the environment through, with and by urban lighting by defining more human and social oriented luminous atmospheric experiences.