In London, glowing river and light pollution form the bridge

The Illuminated River illuminates bridges over the Thames with New York artist Leo Villarreal and local architects (Leafsuts Davidson Sandlands). Bright idea? Chronicles from across the channel.

Regardless of the signs of the zodiac, there is no galaxy of stars larger than the galaxy Emu. This form was named by Australian aborigines until there was a beautiful bird on the night flight; It is thirty times larger than a moon. It is made up of clouds of cosmic dust and is found in the Milky Way, a river of light created by the stars of our galaxy.

Nowadays, even if we live in the city we cannot see the heavenly emu. Light pollution from our built environment scatters through the atmosphere and obscures everything in the night sky that has been observed by Indigenous Australians for at least 65,000 years.

Our light is visible up to 80 km from its source, which disrupts the natural rhythms of the biosphere and makes urban astronomy an oxymoron. Every time we see our phone on the street after dark, we add to the feed. But the contribution of polishing and more and more moving buildings by LEDs and projectors who want to create urban scenes in line with Instagram is very important.

Architecture has long used light as a basic material for design. The Pantheon of Oculus in Rome is like an opening Skyspace Written by artist James Darrell but built 21 centuries ago. By divine intervention, beams of light through the rose windows of the Gothic cathedrals brought color to the sanctuary.

Citizen space and plenty of light are fundamental in urban planning ideas that have emerged from modernity. But all of these ideas made use of the natural light that came in during the day. When Mice proposed a 20-story glass office building for Friedrich Strauss in Berlin in 1921 (it was not built), it was the beginning of the growing glass screen wall office building around the world in the 1960s.

Many people in the United States do not have a light switch because fossil fuels are so cheap and the white glowing glow goes out at night. These days there are some empty spaces of light, and motion detectors can turn the light on and off as people come and go, but I call it architecture. “Large glassDie refuses to die, and the offices continue to ignite the city’s glowing cocoon.

We can blame fire for light pollution. Life was once arranged by natural cycles, the largest of which were day and night; There is no bigger switch than sunrise and sunset. But, maybe 1.5 million years ago, we began to use fire, which extended our waking life in the vast and new realm of darkness.

Oil lamps appeared 6,500 years ago. His introduction to the lights of the 16th century at the intersections of the streets of Paris ” City of Lights “Gas lamps first appeared on the streets of London in 1807, and electric streetlights became popular in the 1870s. Georges Claude loaded the words when using neon. Balas is a hairdresser In Montmartre in 1912, Neon Signage was born. As drawn by Edward Hopper Nighthawks By 1942, the 24/7 urban lifestyle had long been established.

We have certainly destroyed our sleeping habits, but when we enjoy the pleasures of the night in the light realm of the city, we let go of worries and flirt with opportunity, where we are closer to our own. Day. Society is addicted to it, but not everyone gets freedom at night.

After the Industrial Revolution, when gas lamps brought night shifts to factories, the structure of the workplace became its own. Prior to Kovit’s shock, London’s nighttime activity was estimated to have generated about twenty billion euros for the economy (mostly through the decorative light beacons of fast food outlets) and, according to the Mayor of London, the nightlife sector employed 1.6 million people. We can’t turn it off.

Paris, with a strategy linked to lighting since 2000, is ahead of the question of light pollution and London is slow to catch up. Only two central districts have a special project to date, but they now belong to the world’s largest public works of art, and it’s all about light. The glowing river Collaboration with local artists (Leafsuts Davidson Sandilands) by New York artist Leo Villarreal, which illuminates bridges over the Thames with LEDs. The project’s environmental sensitivity ranges from protecting wildlife habitats (including mollusks) to reducing the carbon footprint of previous projects (London Bridge’s night-time electricity consumption boils only three teas).

The project raised questions about London’s trigger lights. In April 2021, the second phase of the Blackfriars Bridges at Lambert was launched, bringing subtle colors to the structures. But something great is happening. Master Villerial on the psychological effect that continuous light can have on people. The glowing river The updated architecture not only reveals the scene, it synchronizes and reduces the viewer’s brain function. It is like a silence (with phase 3) about eight kilometers long.

The North Korean capital, Pyongyang, may be the only major city approaching darkness at night, but even in satellite images it appears as a point of light. Cities are never dark. A challenge for architects.

Australian aborigines refer to “Dream“Or”Dream timeWhen their ancestral spirits created life and places. Can we imagine a dream time that is different from the time of light? Imagine coming home late, at the end of a quiet street, beyond the city, in the distant southern sky, when you see a celestial emu …

Herbert Wright
Find everything Chronicles from across the channel