Topos is a must-have for successful landscape architects, planners, urban designers and architects all over the world.The monothematic issues provide a global overview of innovative projects, new developments and trends in the profession. Be part of the worldwide community of Topos readers!
Editor
The Glow of Silence
THE BATTLE OF BEARS EARS IS FAR FROM OVER • Head of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, Utah State University
Talent vs. Mastermind
Tel Aviv
too BIG to Handle • The “ hippie with a business plan” is back: Daan Roosegaarde has transformed the Afsluitdijk, a historical dyke in the Netherlands, by using a series of light-installations.
Into the Light • Darkness and light are mutually dependent and yet so far away from each other. When it comes to analysing the meaning of these antipodes for humankind, we need to dig a deep tunnel through the strata of history of culture and civilisation.
Dark Sky Less light is more • Lighting in open spaces has significantly changed in recent years. Its worldwide increase impacts humans and the natural environment. In order to minimise the negative effects of artificial light in outdoor spaces, astronomers, environmental associations and manufacturers have begun to cooperate for a new awareness of darkness. They have announced a new approach to designing and planning the use of artificial light called “Dark Sky”. Their addressees are architects designing the nocturnal illumination of facades, urban planners and landscape architects.
“I flesh out a place in the dark.” • Philipp Geist discovered photography and painting while he was still quite young. He toured across Europe as a VJ before finding his vocation as a light artist. Geist, who lives in Berlin, now travels around the world and brings urban spaces and architecture to life with his light installations. He even developed installations for the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro and the Azadi Tower in Tehran. Our luck! We were able to speak with him about his work.
Dark Metal - in Kiruna When the lights go down • Deep in the darkness, flashes of light erupt, unseen. Subterranean explosions blast free the iron ore that is hidden miles below the surface in Sweden's cold, dark North. Here, where days are short and the night seems endless, the city of Kiruna is the iron heart of Scandinavia's mining industry. If the lights go out in the mine, they do so in the city as well.
DARKNESS
Morphing Medellín • Once known as the most dangerous city in the world, this January Medellín in Columbia was named the number one travel destination on the rise in South America. From a world full of darkness and crime, the city has stepped into the light – thanks to its own society, which remembered its values at the darkest moment.
Arabian Nightscapes • Landscape architects and urban designers are mostly trained to design for the daylight hours. As a result, projects often respond to daytime uses, a design’s nighttime functions are hardly considered. It’s quite the opposite in Bahrain where most urban spaces only come to life at night. Gareth Doherty explains what we can learn from the Arabian Peninsula.
Dreaming the city • The German art collective Urbanscreen has recently made a name for itself through a number of spectacular light and media installations in public spaces. The interdisciplinary team comprised of architects, media artists, set designers, musicians and technical specialists has devoted itself to the dialogue between video art and urban communication since 2005.
Light out! • It sounds like a paradox: Light emanating from cities is making it harder to see the light of the stars. Brightly-lit industrial plants and buildings, street lamps and illuminated advertising crowd out the darkness needed to even...
