Apprendre à regarder la ville dans l’obscurité : les « entre-deux » du paysage urbain nocturne

Abstract

Entre deux univers, de lumière et de ténèbres, l’éclaireur décide de ce que l’on éclaire ou de ce qu’on laisse dans l’ombre. Souvent opposée au jour, la nuit est ancrée dans une opposition qui nous a longtemps fait nier son existence. Dans un contexte d’expansion de la lumière artificielle et d’interrogation de la qualité des cadres de vie urbains, peut-on encore fermer les yeux sur la nuit ? Dans le cadre d’une plus vaste recherche sur le paysage montréalais nocturne, nous présentons une recension des approches et des questionnements sur la manière dont nous regardons et planifions la ville la nuit pour dévoiler les enjeux de paysages encore méconnus.Between the two worlds of light and darkness, it is the lighting designer who decides what is illuminated or what is left in the shadows. Usually contrasted with day, night is anchored in a binary state that long deprived us from its existence. In a context of artificial light’s expansion and of questioning the quality of urban lifestyles, can we still ignore the night? Conducted as part of a broader research on Montreal’s landscape at night; we present, in this article, a review of approaches and questions about how we perceive and plan the city at night to reveal landscape issues yet unknown.Entre dos universos, de luz y de tinieblas, el diseñador de luz decide lo que se ilumina y lo que se queda en la oscuridad. Muy seguido la noche esta opuesta al día creando una dicotomía que nos ha hecho negar por largo tiempo su existencia. En un contexto de expansión de la luz artificial y de interrogación sobre la calidad de los espacios de vida urbana ¿podemos seguir cerrando los ojos ante la noche ? En el marco de una investigación más general sobre el paisaje nocturno de Montreal presentamos una reseña de los diferentes puntos de vista e interrogaciones sobre la manera en que miramos y planificamos la ciudad en la noche para dar a conocer lo que esta en juego en esos paisajes aún desconocidos

Thinking night studies through a southern European perspective

“…Specifically, the urban night gained popularity in French‐speaking scholarly communities during the 2010s, finding a place on the research agendas of a growing cohort of historians (Cabantous, 2009), geographers (Challéat, 2010; Comelli, 2015; Giordano, 2017; Pieroni, 2017), sociologists (Guérin, 2017), scholars of urban studies (Bertin, 2016; Mallet, 2009), anthropologists (Monod Becquelin & Galinier, 2020), philosophers (Foessel, 2017) and social science research collectives (CANDELA, 2017). This multidisciplinary interest emerged out of a nuanced set of investigations exploring contrasting features and issues constituting the geographies of the urban night, such as gender perspectives on nocturnal mobilities (Bernard‐Hohm & Raibaud, 2012; Lieber, 2011), night work (Macarie, 2017; Menoux, 2017), artificial lighting (Giordano & Crozat, 2017), the interplay between tourism and the night (Giordano et al., 2018; Giordano & Ong, 2017) and the gentrification of the urban night (Jeanmougin, 2018).…”

Perceptions of the nocturnal public space and technological innovations − citizen evaluation of a smart public lighting installation in Nantes

“…The leading position of public lighting in urban spaces, determined by progressive and innovative approaches that are still topical [1] [2] has since long been supported by initiatives dealing with the safety of people and property, traffic, and the balance between the electricity production and consumption in France [3]. Beyond deeply contrasted nocturnal landscapes between rural and urban environments [4], this attention has consolidated and generated some beliefs in terms of nocturnal urban practices and related artificial lighting. Among those, while the connection between lighting and feelings of safety is definitely rooted [5] [6], and the association between visual comfort and the amount of light is present in several urban lighting projects, new lighting and communication technologies, i.e.…”