2023.01.18-01.20　　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 illuminated objects. It seemed like seeing the nightscape and taking pictures of it could be the purpose of a visit to this place. In this age of breathlessly uploaded photos and videos…

Nightscape in Jingmai Mountain2023.12.08 – 12.13 Kyoko Takubo + Hongna Chen Located on the southwest border of China, Jingmai Mountain is the birthplace of Pu’er tea, where the indigenous people have created an ancient tea forest cultural landscape, which was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in September 2023.While working on the project, we became interested in the local culture. So we decided to survey the villages at night and to observe and report the impact of tourism development on the local nightscape. ■Introduction Visiting Jingmai Mountain isn’t easy. First, spend the night in Kunming, then leave early morning for the destination by plane or train.We had planned to fly from Langcang Jingmai airport, but our flight was suddenly cancelled. So we had to travel to Pu’er by train and grab a cab to Jingmai Mountain.During our stay, we were based in Huimin Town where our project TEA CELLAR is located. We visited Nuogang Village, Wengji Village, and Jingmai Village to observe the people’s daily life and the nightscape there. ■ Nuogang Village Nuogang Village is a historic village of the Dai tribe, where the villagers have maintained their traditional lifestyle. The first floor of the house, with its distinctive gabled roof, is used for tea production and for the teahouse. The second floor with a tiled roof is a living space.The owner of the teahouse told us that the first floor is open to guests and the family…

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 largest Chinatown in Japan has become an established feature of the Yokohama downtown area, but still an area with its own culture and identity. We surveyed Yokohama to discover the Chinese style of lighting environment alive within Japan. At night, there are many hanging lanterns with soft glowing light. This “Light with a Shape” or, through colorful shades, “Light with Color” is a staple of Chinatown and helps to create excitement and a sense of elation. Along the main street there is no specific street lighting, but shop lighting and luminous signage create a natural ambiance along the street. Most structures have columns painted red and use warm tone lighting, but the facade design and signage is all different. This unification of the streetscape through color temperature creates a balance and lasting impression of Chinatown.

Lighting Survey in Mumbai 2017/10/02-10/07　　Mikine Yamamoto + Leon Hitsu　 We researched the biggest economic city of India, Mumbai. It is located west coast of India, which was used to call Bombay. This is the second time we researched this city since we last did in 2004. The goal of this research is to compare how its architecture and lighting have developed, and to compare with Navi Mumbai (New Bombay) developed as a new city of Mumbai. Dhobi Ghat is an outdoor laundry with more than 100 years of history. It is used as a laundry in the daytime, though people lived there and felt a sense of life in the nighttime. The contrast with the skyscraper in the background is very Indian. The building in front of the station. Building was carefully lit up with orange color. Mounting details. The hood was installed in the fixture in order to avoid glare when seen from the front Arriving at Mumbai hotel after the sunset, from the taxi on the way to the hotel, I only saw street lights that lit the street, and the city that was on the background looked dark and sunken. We expected that it was developed like China where a number of buildings lit up, but there was no building that was illuminated. The situation didn’t change even in the city, with only seeing street light illuminating the building a little. Entering the central part of the…