Custom lighting in a Cartagena neighborhood illuminated the importance of better nighttime design It?s an aspect of urban design closely tied to economic activity, safety, and social interaction, not to mention being intertwined with many of the most popular cultural events. But for many, the emerging field of nighttime design, and the ways lighting impacts how we interact with and perceive our urban environment after dark, is a concept that hasn?t quite clicked.
In Cartagena, Colombia, an historic city and popular tourist destination, a multi-national research team conducted an experiment in designing community-led street lamps to demonstrate the importance and impact of lighting on a neighborhood and its residents. Echoing themes pushed by the new breed of night mayors and club councils springing up in cities across the globe, this lighting experiment, completed in 2015 but recently documented in a new film, literally illuminated the importance of urban design after dark. ?Can lighting be used to galvanize a community and bring it together"? says Leni Schwendinger, a designer at the multinational engineering and architecture firm Arup that helped organize the Cartagena initiative. ?Can we use light as a force to bring people together"?

Don Slater

Smart Everyday Nighttime Design, the collaborative research project, used Getsemaní, a UNESCO world-heritage district in Cartagena that?s in the midst of change and gentrification, as a tes...