Lighting Detectives Annual Forum in Madrid Review

In the heart of Tokyo, Nihonbashi River lies hidden under a system of highway overpasses and the Sumida River is wide and commanding and it cuts through the city. With a variety of bridges, both rivers assert their own unique presence in the Tokyo cityscape. On our own river tour, we encountered the particular water and lightscapes surrounding the bridges and shores of each river. The newly built Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower next to the famous Nihonbashi Bridge. This is the first skyscraper in the Nihonbashi area and as the sun sets, the facade detail is elegantly illuminated. At the historical Nihonbashi District, a variety of lighting methods are on parade, but the highway overpasses keep most of the river hidden from view. Rumors of reconstructing the highway system underground would help revive the scenery along the Nihonbashi River. The main structure of the Chuo-Ohbashi Bridge is beautifully illuminated. The many bridges along the Sumida River compete with each other for top beauty marks, as each is illuminated in a multitude of colors.

Date of Issue: 23 August, 2024 ・-Activity 1 / City Night Survey – Busan, South Korea（2024.05.16 – 05.19）・-Activity 2 / Children Workshop in Omishima Island（2024.07.13） City Night Survey: Busan, South Korea2024.05.16 – 05.19 Mari Kubota+ Noriko Higashi Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, is one of the world’s major port cities. In recent years, it has also gained fame as a hub for tourism and film. We surveyed the lighting in Busan, which is also a member of LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International). South Korea is a close neighbor, just 1.5 hours from Tokyo by plane, making it a popular destination for quick and affordable trips. Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea, is not only a tourist destination but also a major port and an entertainment center, hosting film festivals. As a member of LUCI, Busan has been focusing on urban lighting as part of its urban planning. In 2015, the city developed an extensive overview of its nightscapes, resulting in the Busan Urban Light Policy for 2030. This policy has been updated several times, reflecting the city’s ongoing efforts in implementation and improvement. The guidelines divide Busan into several zones, each with lighting tailored to its specific characteristics.We traveled to Busan to assess whether the city’s lighting contributes to safety, beauty, attractiveness, and the local economy at night. ■Jagalchi Market Jagalchi Market is South Korea’s largest seafood market, selling both fresh and dried fish. After purchasing seafood on the first floor, visitors…

5 April, 2005 A large crowd of club members, from students to lighting professionals, gathered this evening to listen to and contribute to reports from the city walking tour team and their trek around the Emperor’s, reports on city lighting surveys in Sapporo and Fukuoka, exciting photograph and stories from a trip to see Alaskan Northern Lights, and a colorful display from lighting manufacture, Maxray. Imperial Palace Walking Tour The first report came from the city walking tour team and their 5km trek on March 25 around the Emperor’s Palace in the middle of Tokyo. The members gathered for the tour were further broken into two teams and the route was surveyed in two parts. Blue team members, Ken Okamoto and Yuki Ogawa, both presented digital pictures for the audience to see for themselves the contrast in lightness and darkness along the perimeter of the palace grounds from Yasukuni Shrine to Tokyo Station via Takebashi Bridge. Yellow team members, Aki Hayakawa and Rachel Nakayama, contributed their impressions of the tour on the opposite side of the palace with pictures including the moonlit moat and illumination of the Japan Budokan, Diet Building, and Tokyo Tower. Alaskan Aurora Borealis Club members Natsuko Ueda and Teruhiko Kubota stole the show with breathtaking slides of the Alaskan Northern Lights. The whispery green lights danced across the projection screen and into the hearts of the gathered club members as they relayed their accounts of waiting…

Global Nightscape survey in Melbourne 2014.11.11-11.15　　Misuzu Nakamura+Haruka Sakoda　 For 4 years running, Melbourne has been chosen as the best place in the world to live. City planning has successfully focused on public space to build one of the world’s leading and charming cities. The cityscape is harmonious balance of old and new buildings. Main avenues lined with trees and lampposts are beautifully maintained, along with smaller alleyways, and even the waterfront along the river flowing through the middle of the city is carefully planned. We surveyed the Melbourne nightscape in search of the secret to its coziness. We can clearly feel the difference of lighting atmosphere between CBD area which is occupied with blacked-out buildings and surrounding local area which is covered by twinkling warm-colored street lights, when we look down from “Eureka Sky Deck”. The lighting plan of the city seems to have intent to differentiate business districts and cozy alleyways, using different color temperature as public lights. The waterfront area was well-maintained with designed pole lights and façade lighting from the surroundings, but some of tree lightings were by glaring spotlights. Many people were enjoying their walk along the river. We found a lot of “catenary downlights” in the city. Instead of pole lighting, catenaries covered large squares, wide intersections and narrow pathway between the building. When the night falls, the downlights looked like a starry sky. As we can see that so many people were gathering at…

Theme:　Scope of Lighting Design Interviewer:　Sunyoung Hwang Sunyoung：Would like to have a talk with Mr. Mende regarding scope of our work, architectural lighting design. Sometimes it is hard to tell how much we should take care of the ‘other’ lighting that are not under our usual contractual scope but still affects architectural lighting. Mende：(While drawing a diagram) We take part of architectural lighting so do not hesitate to propose architectural design. Sometimes, there are overlaps between structure, mechanical engineering or even energy consumption calculation such as Greenmark. I am a little afraid that lighting design these days are becoming to be too technical. Also project mapping and media facade, I would say entertaining part for commercial advertisement and graphics for events.. Scope is always overlapping and regarding our contract to clients, it is difficult to say ‘no’ all the time for those areas. Sunyoung：That is right.. it is difficult to draw line sometimes. By the way, I prepared some visuals to share with you. These are pictures of event lighting for Christmas and Mid-Autumn festival happened last year. Although event lighting is always temporary, many times, I found that it does not really go well with the architectural environment it is placed in. It was quite sad to see. Even my friend who has no background in art or design would say it looks horrible. As a lighting designer, I feel somewhat responsible on lighting environment we face daily and I…