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2024.9.9 Yonglin Ke + Kunzhi Jinag + Linxi Chen The brightness (luminance) of signage lighting is key to shape the overall lighting of a city. This survey conducted in Akihabara, a globally famous district, focused on the renowned Akihabara Electric Town (Chuo-dori), analyzing the evolution of the city’s lighting composition by comparing it to the survey from 19 years ago. ■Akihabara Electric TownAkihabara is the heart of electronics in Tokyo and a globally famous hub for otaku culture. While it is bustling with tourists daily, the colors of the signs, filled with anime and game culture, are much more diverse compared to upscale commercial areas like Ginza or other shopping districts. In 2020, Chiyoda Ward released guidelines for outdoor advertising and urban development, leading to changes in Akihabara’s streetscape. This survey investigates the current night view of Akihabara Electric Town, comparing it to a survey conducted 19 years ago. (Kunzhi Jiang) ■What kind of lights shape Akihabara?The main lighting elements in Akihabara’s key districts include streetlights, signage lighting, building façade lighting, and lighting from store entrances and spillover light.Compared to the picture from 19 years ago, the most noticeable green and red lights from EDION were not illuminated due to the store’s closure. The ONODEN sign is now an LED screen, and the surrounding lighting has a more subdued feel. Previously, the area behind the bridge was completely dark, but now, with the bright lighting from a drugstore’s interior and…

Date of Issue: July 11, 2023・Activity 1/ City Night Survey: Kobe（2023.01.18-01.20）・Activity 2/ Night Walk Vol.71: Yaesu and Otsu（2023.03.24 & 04.21）・Activity 3/Round Table Discussion Vol.69: Review on Yaesu and Otsu（2023.04.28） City Night Survey: Kobe2023.01.18-01.20　Yumi Honda ＋ Misuzu Nakamura　 Kobe is famous for the night view from Mt. Rokko as the “10 Million Dollar Nightscape” and for its waterside nightscape as a port city. Nightscape guidelines have been established in 2012, and efforts are being actively made to improve the lighting in the city. We walked around the city, which continues to be updated, and explored the components of a nightscape that is uniquely Kobe. ■“Instagrammable” NightscapePort Tower, Maritime Museum, Oriental Hotel, Hotel Okura, Ferris wheel, sightseeing boats, and the “BE KOBE” monument…. When people think of the city of Kobe, they probably think of Meriken Park. Meriken Park is the face of Kobe, and even at night many people were visiting the park to take commemorative photos. Many of the park’s symbolic monuments were lit up and color lighting was used extensively, but the colors and color schemes were mainly neutral, not primary colors, so it was nice to enjoy the colorful light without getting an overpowering impression. To complement the color lighting, the ground lights of the pole lights, handrail lights, and bollard lights were uniformly lit with light bulbs, creating a subdued brightness. Both decorative lighting and functional lighting emitted little excessive glare, allowing us to concentrate on the…

Bali, Indonesia 25 & 26 August 2005 The Lighting Detectives in Bali? The Lighting Detectives traveled to Bali this summer for two reasons: 1. To join in the fun of the famous Bali Kite Festival and show off our luminous kites and 2. To witness the powerful Ketcha Dance and add our own lighting element to the dancer’s costumes. The Lighting Detectives have done the lightup guerrilla “illuminate and run” scheme in Japan, but this was a first to bring the event overseas and also coordinate activities with the locals. There was no running and hiding this time!! LIGHTING UP THE WIND Once an evening in Bali brought a constant humming from the sky – with the cacophony of frogs and crickets. Mesmerized. Alluring. This sound actually came from the hummers that are attached to giant Balinese kites. This memory stayed fresh. As ideas for the workshop of Lighting Detectives came in for 2005, we thought to illuminate this Balinese experience. Though invisible, the wind makes its presence on everything it touches. The kite is man’s way of the wind’s revelations. Illuminating this rhythm against the black hue of the Balinese night sky should be enchanting, magical. The main kite was flown in Sidakaria, home of the champion kite team in Bali. It was similar to the Balinese traditional kite, the Janggan (dragon). 40 x 50 feet, with a 300 feet long tail. Light sources adorned the tail. Kites made…

2023.03.24 & 04.21　Satoshi Tamura+ Amane Kotani+ Noriko Higashi+ Shouya Koizumi+ Moana Osakabe+ Hina Inagawa The first Lighting Detectives activity of 2023 was a night walk survey in Yaesu, where Midtown Yaesu opened in March and large-scale development is planned for the future. They documented the pre-development area and at the same time looked around the new light environment in the area where development is underway. Mr. Suzuki of the Honda Foundation, whose building is scheduled for demolition, joined us on the survey and explained the history of the area and the Honda Building. ■ Group 1: North side of Yaesu Street Group 1 toured mainly the north side of Yaesu Street. Although many areas were surrounded by temporary fences and inaccessible during redevelopment work, we were able to see the old drinking area and old buildings that were in use before the redevelopment. Although there were some villains in the old buildings, the drinking area was unanimously voted as a hero for its nostalgic impression with a moderate brightness of 55lx, 4,500K. The majority of the participants were of the opinion that they would like this townscape and atmosphere to remain in Yaesu after the redevelopment. The greatest hero of the day was the rows of cherry trees along Sakura-dori Street. We were able to walk under them just as they were in full bloom on the day of night walk survey. Here, temporary lighting was installed later and the…

Manhattan is a sleepless city of luminous spectacles, a city everyone dreamed of in the 20th century could have imagined. The energy of the people is transformed into the bright lights of the nightscape, as lights dot the skyscrapers all day and night. The beauty nightscape at New York City is best seen in its skyline from across the river. Looking down on Manhattan from the Empire State Building at dusk. The Streets and Avenues present a rock-solid, ridged foundation. The RCA Building glows a bright white, Fifth Avenue is a yellowish-gold, and the point of the Chrysler building can be seen. Walls of light surround Times Square with the latest technology incorporated into the different interactive lights. The Empire State Building, a well-established icon in the Manhattan skyline with a 360°view from the top.