Revealing the night
This tool helps stakeholders mapping and visualizing the different activities that happen during the night-time in a street, park or square.
Format A3
1 hour
Park or square projects
Why to use this tool?
Each public space has its own dynamics. A park receives various users with different needs and who develop activities around those needs.
This tool helps stakeholders to identify those urban dynamics to propose the urban lighting design.
HOW to use THIS TOOL?
Step 1
Download this PDF and print it on an A3. You can also take the image as a canvas and use an online collaborative whiteboard such as miro.
Find more about miro here
Step 2
Make everyone comfortable sharing their ideas before to start. An ice-breaker is always a good idea to integrate all the team (10 min)
Step 3
Discuss about the public space you are going to describe. It is a street, a square, a park? Which is its scale? Is it a neighbourhood scale, a city scale or district scale park/square/street? And finally, what is the context in which is located? A residential area, commercial area, or a context with mixed uses? (10 min)
Step 4
Discuss each one of the activities done in that public space. It is a place for playing, meeting, contemplation, other activity? Then inquire about what is the time-slot of each activity and who are the users who develop those activities?
What kind of users explore or use that public space? Are they children, mainly women, elderly or mainly youge people? Are they students, cargivers or workers? Describe them as detail as possible (30 min)
Step 5
Inquire if some activity is missing. If this is the case, add it in the canvas and remember to include also the time-slot and users of the activity (10 min)
*Tip
Involve a diverse group of stakeholders. Make sure that this team gathers citizens, designers, decision-makers and any other profile relevant for the project. All points of view are welcome.
Where to find more information about this topic?
Public spaces in our cities gather different activities and users. At the same time the flux and type of users change between the hours of the night and the days of the week.
Because of that, as stakeholders we should be aware of those dynamics in order to promoto the interaction between citizens and public spaces at night. An intriging article done by ARUP “Cities Alive – Lighting the urban night-time” explains the relevance of urban lighting design nowadays.