Round Table Discussion in Jan.

Ever since the new library was finished I have wanted to go and see it, so 15 members of the Lighting Detectives gathered around dusk for the Tama Art U. campus version of a city walking tour. It is well known that the architect is Toyo Ito and furniture designed by Kazuko Fujie, but for the past 10 years Professor Satoshi Tabuchi has been coordinating the architectural and developmental planning of Tama Art U. Campus. In spite of his busy schedule Prof. Tabuchi was able to give the Lighting Detectives a private campus tour. The library was built on a hill and the first floor slopes with this natural incline. It was a little bit peculiar and although, I have experienced a non-horizontal park built by Arakawa + Gin before, a sloping floor aroused a slight strangeness. I was taken back to the feeling of running around in the sandlot as a child or walking uphill on a faraway. However, while the floor is sloping, all of the tabletops are level. As you sit and concentrate on your work or books you just forget about the sloping floor underfoot. Since we are the Lighting Detectives, out came the luminance meters to calculate floor, table top, vertical, ect. lux levels. I forgot the exact numbers, but tabletop luminance levels were right around 400 lux. This is a good number for super ambient up lighting to the ceiling. Floor lamps with oversized…

3 June, 2010 The hottest tour in recent years is the famous Kawasaki Factory Night Bus Tour. Upon news of an upcoming tour, sales agents are bombarded with seat reservations, and within minutes the limited space is fully booked. This is the popular night tour the Lighting Detectives sought to hitch a ride on. The tour would take us to all the popular night viewing spots in the area, as tension escalates with a climatic drive down factory lane! Survied by: Daisuke Yano, Syunichi Ikeda, & Noriko Higashi Inside the tour bus. The guide relays facts and history to Lighting Detective members. The bus picked up Lighting Detective members and departed from Kawasaki Station, headed for different observation spots such as Kawasaki Rinko Warehouse roof and Higashi Ougishima East Park. Through the silent darkness along the Port of Kawasaki, bright-white factory security lighting shone like beckons and we could almost feel the heat inside the bus from gigantic flare stacks. Below are three accounts from members on the tour. Kawasaki Factory Night Bus Tour Route Depart Kawasaki Station 　　　　　↓ Kawasaki Mari-en Observation Hall 　　　　　↓ Municipal Wharf 　　　　　↓ Rooftop of Kawasaki Rinko Warehouse 　　　　　↓ Higashi Ougishima East Park 　　　　　↓ Drive along Metropolitan Expressway from Kawasaki Interchange (Viewing from bus window) 　　　　　↓ Drive down Ginza Chuou Blouvard (Viewing from bus window) 　　　　　↓ Arrive at Tokyo Station and end of tour Tour route in the Port of Kawasaki. From here, the bus took…

2025.09.12 & 09.18 Lin Hu + Jiang Kunzhi + Lin Huangyi Shenzhen evolved from a fringe town into a high-tech metropolis in about 45 years, and its bold, sustainable urban lighting planning stands out nationally. A two-day field study examined nightscape patterns in its three CBDs, media façades in Futian, and the functional lighting design of the new Gangxia North Metro Station. Unlike older, historically rich Chinese cities, Shenzhen started as a peripheral town and in just about 45 years has become a high-tech modern metropolis. Thanks to its local legislative autonomy, Shenzhen’s urban planning is highly experimental and often serves as a model for other Chinese and even international cities. In urban lighting planning, Shenzhen is a national frontrunner: its nightscape design is bold and innovative, yet the city has also enacted special regulations for ecological protection and light pollution control, showing a clear commitment to sustainability. However, some lighting projects still spark social debate over energy consumption, light pollution, and the use of public resources. To understand more of Shenzhen’s current nightscape, the Shenzhen office team conducted a two-day field study with Mende-san and Kasai-san, focusing on three themes: 1.　Nightscape of the three main CBDsWe visited the observation deck at 540 m on the Ping An Finance Center in Futian to take in the scale and layout of the city at night. Looking east toward Luohu, the skyline shows a mix of old and new high-rises, reflecting Shenzhen’s…

The Lighting Detectives Makes Its Appearance in Ginza Date: March 6-April 29, 1997Place: TEPCO Ginza Building, 2F ‘Electric Scene’ Seven years of accumulated Lighting Detective’s research and activities were exhibited in a viewer-friendly show, ‘Shomei Tanteidan Exhibit?The Lighting Detectives Make an Appearance in Ginza’. Six exhibition corners were set-up in the TEPCO Ginza Building, 2F Electric Scene Room. 01　Concept of Lighting Detectives As a corner to introduce the concept of the Lighting Detectives, we have visualized the results of the Lighting Detectives over 6 years with 14 keywords in a box of 30 cm on a side. Look through the holes in the box and ask them to think about the meaning of the keyword. 02　World Nightscape Here, 20 carefully selected night views of the world and night expressions seen by the Lighting Detectives are exhibited. A beautiful night view of a beautiful city, a night view created by natural light such as the moon and stars, Aurora and blue moments … Enjoy many night expressions 03　Variety things emit light in the city There are so many “light things” lurking in the city. Here they meet and communicate with each other. The seven tools used by the Lighting Detectives are also on display. 04　Light Experience Tunnel The cities are getting brighter and brighter in Japan. The lights of vending machines, convenience stores, lights of gas stations and light-ups overflow in a city that does not sleep for 24 hours. Do…

City Night Walk Vol.064：Skybus Tour 2019.07.26　Anri Sato+ Mutsuro Honma For our 64th Stroll about town, we explored the Tokyo Nightscape using a 2 story open roof bus: Skybus. It was a great drive around town, using Skybus’ Odaiba Nightscape course. While we started the event with some concerns about bad weather, but luckily we were able to enjoy a beautiful summer night drive. A group photo at Odaiba with the rainbow bridge behind us Skybus The Significance of the Skybus tour We started before it got dark Chief Mende-san explaining the point of the bus tour The sunset setting upon the emperor’s residence Under the theme of ‘Rediscovering the nightscape of Tokyo on the Skybus!’, our members all explored the nightscape of Tokyo from a height of 3.8m off the ground. Our route was Tokyo Station → Oukyo (Emperor’s residence) → Tokyo Tower → Shuto Highway → Rainbow Bridge → Odaiba → Shuto Highway → Rainbow Bridge → Tsukiji Market → Ginza → Hibiya → Marunouchi → Tokyo Station The lighting detectives also held the same event in 2013, but as the 2020 Olympics/Paralympics are under a year away, there are heavy development projects occurring all around Tokyo and therefore would perhaps change the nightscape of the city. We were curious to explore how the nightscape of Tokyo has changed especially after the Tsukiji market has moved completely to the Toyosu Market. The highlight of this trip is the nightscape…