[Members only]City Walk@Ginza

Date of Issue: July 11,2022・Activity 1/City Night Survey : Shibuya, Tokyo（2022.03.10） City Night Survey : Shibuya, Tokyo　 2022.07.11　Hikaru Kimura + Yonglin Ke + Xueying Piao Shibuya, known as a youth hub, began redevelopment in 2012, transforming into a business district with a cluster of new office buildings and commercial facilities. While many new restaurants have emerged, traditional drinking alleys remain intact. This survey investigates the contrasting night scenes of the new and old Shibuya. ■Overlooking Nightscape of ShibuyaFrom the Shibuya Scramble Square, the rooftop of Miyashita Park stands out prominently to the east of the central railway tracks. The warm glow along the podium belongs to Shibuya Yokocho (alley). Nestled beside the pitch-black railway tracks and appearing as a dotted red line is Nonbei Yokocho. Viewed from above, Nonbei Yokocho exuded a soft, flickering light, resembling candles, in contrast to the lively and vibrant atmosphere of Shibuya Yokocho.The overall nightscape, divided by the Yamanote Line tracks, presents a striking contrast: the western side is dominated by tall buildings, densely packed with billboards and advertisements, exuding the lively energy of a traditional entertainment district. The eastern side, on the other hand, has fewer billboards and subdued signage, giving it a unified and calm appearance.I wonder if Shibuya will eventually become a more standardized urban landscape, much like its eastern side. Personally, I felt the bustling, nostalgic charm of the western side embodies the true spirit of Shibuya, and it’s something worth…

Historic Meet Light @ Hong Kong Island Mid Level2023.09.05 Makalin Wongchinchai This year, Hong Kong Lighting Detectives organized a night walk event at Hong Kong Island Mid-Level. We invited some college students and designers to join us. Let’ s explore the night walk with us and see when historic lights meet. Detectives explored the special relationshipand imapct lighting in the architectural environment . The old central area of Hollywood Road in Hong Kong is well known for its rich architectural heritage, featuring a mix of Eastern and Western styles that reflects its colonial past. We have curated a route that allows us to discover some of the most significant historic and modern-day elements. In addition, a walk through the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail, where we can still find traces of his revolution left on this land. This time, we invited college students and designers . As we were exploring the historical site, we found that the route was relatively dark . Most of heritage architectures, such as medical sciences museum, Man Mo temple or the stairs during the night walk, don’t have lighting. So it makes these heritage buildings disappear at night and creates the dark area on the stairs, which makes it difficult and unsafe to walk through these stairs. The light trespass and glare are also the main issues in this area where you may know that Hong Kong is one of the cities with the most light…

The spirit of light and water reside in Venice. In every corner of the small maze-like alleyways, light and water dance together. During the day it is the sunlight and shadows shining on the water’s surface, at night the small street lamps cast a reflection in the water, Venice creates not only a city of water, but also a city of light. A typical scene along the streets of Venice, a bridge illuminated above the dimly lit canal. Looking from the Ponte di Rialto , the sunset on the Canal Grande unfolds. The people of Venice prefer the waters edge, a boundary between light and shadows along the canals.

Darkness and Irori (Hearth) Experience Workshop 2018/12/01 Simeng Huang This was our first children’s workshop at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in four years. To teach the children the importance of darkness and minimal light, we had most of the park’s illumination turned off after closing hours. The children were then able to experience how their five senses work in the dark. Illuminating the roof with flashlights and color filters Applying the flashlight beam as instructed by chief Mende Illumination experiments using various colors We held a children’s workshop at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum on December 1st, just as the cold weather was becoming severe. This time, we conducted three activities: Light-up Ninja, Darkness Experience, and Irori (Hearth) Experience.After the orientation, 17 elementary and junior high school students gathered in front of the Kodakara-yu (public bathhouse) in the park, carrying flashlights and color filters. Following chief Mende’s instructions, they illuminated the walls and signs of the building, changing the colors with red, blue, green, pink, and orange filters. Blue light was the most popular, and the consensus was that blue light looked best on the white plaster walls of the Kodakara-yu. When they lit up the large willow tree next to it, although we expected green to be popular, the opinion was that the white light without a filter was the best.After the light-up, we toured the park to see the nighttime appearance of old Japanese buildings….

Interviewer: Jack Lim Jack: Good morning Mr. Mende. Today’s theme is “Dreams”. We will keep it open for discussion, whether it refers to the dreams when we sleep, or ambitions and wishes.  I will start with the question: When you sleep, do you have recurring dreams? Mende: I have many times dreamt of the same scenery and the same landscape, which gave a feeling of déjà vu. In this dream, I am usually flying. I see the ocean, the sun all over town, with beautiful nature and landscape. And I am usually just stand on a higher place. Do you know the ‘Tetsuwan Atomu’ (Astro Boy) ? I am just flying like Atomu. This is my favourite dream. I very much enjoy dreaming. Jack: Do you also dream a lot? Mende: Yes, I always have very good and optimistic dreams. I don’t have any fearful and bad dreams. Even when I have to fight somebody, I can always win. How about you? Jack: I dream a lot. I can dream even during a quick 10-minute nap, or when I fall asleep on a bus ride. My dreams come in all forms, good and bad. A recurring dream that I have usually happens when I’m almost falling asleep: I step on something slippery, like a banana peel, and fall backward, hitting the back of my head. Then I wake up with a sudden jolt, lying in bed, shocked. Sometimes, though, I…