Cehao Yu

With my design background, I consider light to be more visible as a social scientific topic instead of a technical layer for physical environment. Light is shaped or configured into urban space and itself configures experience, sense and emotion. Urban lighting enters into the ways in which social life and interaction is staged and enacted in specific social worlds.
It was recognized that lighting can change subjective and behavioural responses of people. Can dynamic feature lighting produce urban lit environments that increase a sense of security in the public and encourage spatial usage? This research question was tackled by undertaking field studies on five sites, i.e. Granary Square, Finsbury Avenue Square, Piccadilly circus, Leicester square and Westfield of Stratford. Over 300 interviews have been undertaken with visitors to the sites when the dynamic feature lighting is on.
My aim is to produce both knowledge and methodologies for better researching the ways in which dynamic feature light is configured into urban space and the roles it plays in structuring social life. In pursuing this aim, a guideline for dynamic feature lighting was proposed based on conclusions of factor analysis and open-ended comments left by observers. It is the authors’ aspiration to support design teams in their quest to realize successful applications to refocus the original need for artificial lighting; not from a technological, economical or artistic point of view, but merely from the observers’ point of view.