Dovetailing darkness and light for designing sustainable outdoor spaces

Abstract

This paper aims to derive a design framework for dovetailing darkness and light while planning outdoor spaces using the concept of pragmatic utopia. Pragmatic utopia is a sustainable design movement characterized by an inclusive outlook towards ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable design. Ideological concepts of pragmatic utopian lighting design derived from literature are presented via their criteria for expanding sustainable lighting. Values of darkness derived from literature are presented via their spatial characteristics and temporal outlook. These ideological lighting concepts are then systematically matched with the darkness values to develop a dark-light design framework that can be used as a guidance tool for analysing and designing outdoor spaces with darkness and light. The applicability of this framework is tested by analysing three popular outdoor lighting projects that have addressed critical issues such as biodiversity protection, darkness preservation, heritage conservation, and social interaction as case studies. The objective is to use this framework for improving the ecological, economical, and socio-cultural fabric of outdoor spaces with carefully planned darkness and lighting.

Keywords

• darkness
• lighting
• outdoor spaces
• pragmatic utopia
• sustainable design