Night Walk in Osaka!

The 51st Regular Round Table Discussion＠Tanteidan Office 01. April 2016　　Noriko Higashi We reviewed the Yokohama Bashamichi and Isezaki-cho city night walk held in March 2016. Cherry river was the best hero. The original plan was to walk in two areas, two groups each, but one of the groups went off the course together with Isezaki Mall and so they summarized the experiences as well. A group took a vote. A group made their questionnaire and the member answered. Summary of the shop lightings in Bashamichi. The major comment on Bashamichi was the lack of proper night scape planning. Glary spilled light from shops were disturbing the view, and feature buildings and key functions such as zebra crossings were left unlit. The old gas lamps would have created a nice scenery in this area if lighting plan had been done properly. Another comment was on the contrast of bright and dark spots; it was good that the entire area was not too bright, but some spots were too dim to walk comfortably. Many also pointed that historical buildings should be enhanced by lighting. Some shops and streets had good lighting, and those were introduced as heroes of light. All the participants were disappointed that the special feature of gas lamps were not used in the best way. The groups from Isezaki-cho mostly commented that Isezaki was not so sophisticated as Omotesando, but the combination of chaotic, heartwarming and nostalgic lighting environment…

Published：05.July 2016 ・Activity 1／The 53rd City Night Walk in Yokohama Bashamichi and Isezaki-cho（18/03/2016） ・Activity 2／The 51st Regular Round Table Discussion（01/04/2016） The 53rd City Night Walk in Yokohama Bashamichi and Isezaki-cho 18.March.2016　　Yuki Takeuchi + Eiki Takeuchi + Ginko Mochizuki + Huang Simen + Shinichi Sakaguchi We divided into two groups walked in Bashamichi and the other two in Isezaki-cho, Northside and Eastside of JR Kannai Station in Yokohama. Those two areas are geographically close but have different characters. ■Over 150 years old gas lamps and early modern architectures create nostalgic scenarios in Bashamichi. Most elements and buildings have been modernized to suit for urban life style in Isezaki-cho. Both Bashamichi and Isezaki-cho are on the same stretch of the city, but have totally in contrast of these characters. We started exploring those two areas to find Heroes and Villains of light, and to reveal what kind of light defines the character of each area. Contrast between gas lamp and shop interior light. ■Bashamichi Area Bashamichi was the first place that gas lamps were installed in Japan. Before those gas lamps were produced in Japan, people carried portable lanterns with candle light. We started the walk, imagining how people felt when they saw gas lamps at the first time. Group 1 started at Kannai Station. Arriving at Bashamichi and walking further down to the junction, first light to note was stadium lighting. We still had a long distance to Yokohama Stadium though,…

06 October 2006 Now that the heat of the summer is over, the Lighting Detectives converged on Sankeien Garden in Yokohama to see the new harvest moon glow over traditional Japanese architecture and garden grounds and experience moonlight. Even though it turned out to be a rainy day, we were still positive that the clouds would disappear as we left for Yokohama. Survey By: Yusuke Hattori Stormy Sankeien Garden After a train and bus ride, 22 members of the Lighting Detectives arrived at Sankeien at 4:00 in the afternoon. Of the 17 architectural structures strategically placed around the garden, 12 are labeled Important Cultural Assets and were moved to the garden grounds from Kyoto, Kamakura, and other places from around Japan. The garden has a long distinguished history and in celebration of its 100th Anniversary, the garden was open to visitors at night. In the middle of our moon watching, the weather took a turn for the worse and chased everyone, but the Lighting Detectives indoors. Soaking wet from the waist down and most umbrellas blown inside out, the excitement of the storm faded and members grew weary as dusk set in and the moon came up. Plan B As Lighting Detective spirits and body temperatures started to dip, we all gathered indoors at the Kakushokaku, formally the residence of local merchants, The Hara Family, and recently renovated and restored to original state for the public’s use. The detectives ate…

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…

2014.08.18-08.20　　　Noriko Higashi A 3-day workshop and Light Up Ninja event was held on August in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During the city walk we not only looked for hero and villains of light, but also discussed what kind of nightscape is needed in Sao Paulo since public safety and other issues are of concern in the city. During Light Up Ninja we illuminated one of the city’s iconic buildings, Copan, for two hours. This workshop was a great hands-on opportunity to not only exercised regular night walk, but we also debated and did actual experiments with several viable lighting proposals. Lighting plan that won 1st place in the lighting proposal competition was carried out. ■Workshop Venue：Copan The building Copan, the light up venue, was originally desinged by a representative Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and interrupted several times afterwards, but it was completed in 1964. It is a large building consisting of the largest number of households in the upper part and the commercial facility　lower part.　Copan is standing in the old town with parks, churches and banks.There were hardly any new buildings around, which seemed to be built from the 1960’s to the 1980’s. Workshop venue, Copan ■Day 1：Orientation Mr. Mende, chief of Lighting detectives,is giving a lecture. There were about 25 participants in the workshop.Most of them were either lighting designers and lighting manufacturers, and had a wealth of knowledge about　lighting.　However, they rarely have opportunity to discuss and learn lighting, so…