Exploring Light in the Urban Realm

An international draw of architects, lighting designers, urban planners, and lighting industry professionals assembled in Rotterdam, the Netherelands on the occasion of the Philips’ City.People.Light Forum. Held to coincide with Rotterdam’s ‘Year of Architecture,’ in cooperation with the Lighting Urban Community International (LUCI) and Professional Lighting Design (PLDA) Associations, the two-day artistic and intellectual celebration of light in the urban environment commenced with the exhibition “Transitions: Light on the Move.” Following the success of the first Transitions (2006-2006), lighting environments constructed in shipping containers, commissioned by Philips and designed by an international cadre of architects and lighting designers, this is the second group of containers to be commissioned—eight in total for 2007-2008. This year’s selection of Transitions designs explore the themes of sustainability and globalization through human interaction with light, sound, color and form, evoking light’s power in challenging our perception and touching our emotions. The containers will continue to tour Europe through 2008 visiting Benelux, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and Poland.

The second day of the forum, with opening remarks by the mayor of Rotterdam, Ivo Opstelten, hosted a series of presentations and panel discussions on the role of lighting in the urban realm, along with galleries displaying ideas for urban lighting concepts discussed during the four City.People.Light workshops that took place in 2007 in Lyon, France, Philadelphia, Shanghai, and Hamburg, Germany, the results of which are published in an accompanying volume. The evening was capped off with a boat tour of the six lighting installations along the River Maas, worked on by student teams during the week as part of the PLDA workshops. From the discussions to the various installations, the City.People.Light Forum showcased light’s critical role in shaping our experience and our environments.