After dark: social-ecological public space from a darkness perspective

Abstract

Sustainable urban development calls for urban planning and design supporting both society and ecology; human and non-human species. We need to think of ecology in cities in order to move beyond the traditional human-centred development and reconnect to natural systems. Social-Ecological Urbanism sets the background to address this challenge; identifying the conflicts but also the synergies that emerge from the meeting of social and ecological systems. After Dark is a thesis based on the social-ecological approach, rethinking the increasing yet overlooked issue of urban darkness-lighting imbalance. Excessive use of artificial light, light pollution, has slowly replaced the starry dark sky with a gray haze and altered the natural rhythms of dark and light. This has detrimental effects on human well-being and nocturnal species. Values of darkness seems forgotten, despite Earth being dark 50% of the time. Theoretic research on both light pollution and the values of darkness has grown lately, however a lack of spatial translation beyond solely reducing excessive artificial light is evident. By shifting the perspective in planning and design from mitigating light pollution to focus on the values of darkness we aim to reintroduce darkness to our urban areas. The project is multiscalar - city, district & site, illustrating the challenges and opportunities of designing with darkness for humans and other species. The theoretic concept of a dark ecological network has been implemented into the context of Gothenburg. The dark network is particularly relevant since one of the most important native species in the region, the bat, is nocturnal. The potential for areas and corridors forming the network on city and district scale were found through data analysis observations. By overlaying data representations of systems in the city, synergies and conflicts between humans and bats are collected. A central development area with an intersection between an important and sensitive structure for nocturnal species and an attractive link for humans is explored in the site scale. The public space has a focus on the visual perception of space in darkness and illustrates the duality of social-ecological needs.