1.5 Social analysis

3.4 Lighting Master Plan

There are no suggestions for the lighting in The Railway City in specific in The Copenhagen lighting masterplan, but the general guidelines of the masterplan will be considered on the design. Even though the Lighting Masterplan has specific guidelines for most of the areas in Copenhagen, for some reason or another there is no guideline for The Railway City. Nevertheless, there is plenty of general guidelines and suggestions for lighting design in Copenhagen regardless of the specific location. Based on our site analysis, the design of this project will consider guidelines regarding lighting design for areas with prominent historical identities and lighting for areas where soft traffic is the main form of transportation. There are also more abstract mentions about increasing coherence and the importance of tunnel lighting.

Coherence

“De analyser, der er foretaget I forbindelse med Belysningsmasterplanen, viser, at borgere oplever byens eller kvarterers belysning som en helhed. Det er derfor afgørende for den samlede oplevelse af byens belysning, at lyset hænger sammen.” (Fællens udvikling af byens belysning” p. 9 )

One theme that was observed during the analysis was, that the tunnel area doesn’t feel to belong to the rest of the city, as the atmosphere is so different from its surroundings. As it is mentioned in the masterplan, that the citizens tend to experience city areas as connected entities, the design should consider how there could be added coherence between The Railway City and the tunnel area.

Fig. 3.7 The Railway City in the middle. (source: Citelum, 2014)

Fig. 3.8.: Suggested colour temperatures for the streets of Copenhagen. (source: Citelum 2014)

Infrastuctural nodes

“Københavns Kommunes ambition er at inspirere til sammenhængende løsninger omkring byens belysning. En række områder er særligt vigtige. Særligt fremhæves infrastrukturelle knudepunkter.” (Fællens udvikling af byens belysning” p. 9 )

To further argue for the importance of functional lighting design in our chosen area, in the Masterplan it is mentioned how infrastructural nodes have special importance. These kind of places are easily experienced as unsafe, and special attention needs to be taken to successfully create a safe and comfortable environment.

More than light

“Fokusområderne og lyskoncepterne tjener som inspiration til at vise, at lys kan understøtte andre af kommunens visioner, f.eks. i forhold til at understøtte fysisk aktivitet, styrke tryghed, formidle kulturarv og understøtte lokalt byliv.” p.10 Mere end lys

It is acknowledged in the masterplan, that lighting design can have more goals than providing sufficient illumination. In our case, we would especially like to support the cultural heritage and the local community with light.

Luminaires

As for the recommendations for the luminaires in The Railway City, the guidelines about lighting for local roads, soft traffic and lighting for historical workers neighborhoods will be implemented.

“For at understøtte den særlige stemning i de gamle arbejderkvarterer, foreslår vi et specifi kt armatur, der kombinerer klassiske og industrielle stilarter.” p.23

As for the street lighting in The Railway City area, a luminaire with a mounting height of 4m that combines classical and industrial styles is suggested. (fig. 3.9) (Belysningsmasterplan, p. 23) This light should have a kelvin value of 3000, as it is considered ideal for soft

traffic forms to promote the feelings of safety and comfort. (Belysningsmasterplan, p. 32). The Enghavevej on the other hand is considered as a large road, and the guidelines that apply to it are rather different from the ones that apply to the local roads.

“In large roads it is important, that the main paths of the city’s roadwork can be easily identified by their lighting and particularly by the lighting fixtures. The luminaires need to function as a landmark and play a guiding role in the complex urban network. The visual orientation needs to be intuitive, so that the luminaires and the light they spread, help the user to “the right track”.” P.19

The suggested luminaire type for Enghavevej differs from the type of luminaire that is suggested for The Railway City. It is more simplified and modern in style, and the suggested mounting height is 8m and colour temperature equivalent to daylight, 4000K. (fig. 3.10) As a goal of the design project is to create coherent lighting that connects Enghavevej and The Railway City in style, the challenge of creating connection between two city parts is faced.

SUMMARY: The Copenhagen Lighting Masterplan supports our design visions in many ways. The importance of supporting historical heritage and coherence is mentioned, as well as designing lighting for local roads, large roads and infrastructural nodes.

Fig. 3.9: Fig. Suggested luminaire for historical workers neighborhoods. (source: Citelum 2014)

Fig. 3.10: Suggested luminaire for the major roads. (source: Citelum 2014)

3.5 Outdoor lighting standards

The previous research on the Lighting Masterplan of Copenhagen concluded that there are two contrasting types of light that are appropriate for our focus area:

• On Otto Busses Vej side: luminaires that reflect the local roads in the area and support soft traffic and lighting for historical neighborhoods; placed with a height of 4m, with a classical and industrial look and with a CCT of 3000K

• On Enghavevej side: luminaires designed for large roads, simple and modern looking; placed at a height of 8m and with a CCT of 4000K

In addition to lighting for local and large roads, which are representative for the nodes connected to the tunnel to The Railway City as described above, further research has been done on the European and Danish Standards for road lighting (EN 13201-2). This was an important step in identifying the recommended illuminance and uniformity values inside of the tunnel. Thus, the findings showed that the tunnel under this study resembles class C, intended for use on conflict areas (fig. 3.11). A conflict area signifies an area of somewhat high visual complexity, where two or more different types of

Fig.3.11: Lighting requirements for the nodes connected to the tunnel falling under class P, according to EN 13201-2

users are traveling at the same time – in our case, we have cyclists and pedestrians overlapping paths. In this case, the recommended minimum illuminance on the ground level is between 7,50-50 lx, with a minimum uniformity of 0,40. Another finding from the EN 13201-2 covers the requirements for the 2 nodes that the tunnel leads to, which fall under the P lighting class (fig. 3.12). This class is therefore intended for pedestrians and pedal cyclists, just like our analysis showed, and presents the required average illuminance ranging between 2-15 lx and the minimum illuminance 0,40-3 lx on ground level.

Fig. 3.12: Lighting requirements for the tunnel falling under class C, according to EN 13201-2

SUMMARY: In order to create a seamless connection between the tunnel and the two nodes it is immediately linked to, a comprehensive lighting system has to be built, that follows a coherent set of standards and meets the conveyed needs of our users.

3.6 Sustainability

As lighting designers, it is important our project does not take part in light pollution which is a worldwide issue. There are multiple consequences of lighting pollution such as interference with astronomical research and disruption of natural ecosystems. There will be more focus on other issues like the well-being of people, energy waste and the preservation of a starlit night sky, since these problems are more relevant to this project. “For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” — Vincent van Gogh

Circadian rhythm

Most forms of life follow a biological clock – circadian rhythm –, a sleep-wake pattern that is dictated by the day-night cycle and it can be greatly affected by artificial light in the night (IDA, 2021). Minimizing light pollution is essential for a sustainable future, since it can negatively affect human well-being but also wildlife. In our case, light pollution would be minimal since the light fixtures on the entrances of the tunnel are not many. Their effect to the overall light pollution would be minimal. But it is important to follow the sustainable way and design with it as a discipline.

Energy waste

IDA (International Dark-Sky Association) estimates that 30% of outdoor lighting in the US is wasted mostly because of non-shielded fixtures. That number equals to 3.3 billion dollars and the release of 21 million tons of carbon dioxide per year for the US alone. 875 million trees need to be planted per year, in order to offset this waste (IDA, 2021).

Solution

There is a broad spectrum of light sources that contribute to public lighting but not all of them work for our purposes regarding sustainability. “We must rethink urban lighting beyond just a functional add-on for safety or beautification and recognize it as an opportunity and fundamental solution to improve the quality of life for urban citizens” (ARUP, 2015, p.5). Light from light poles and fixtures need to be focused on the streets, to minimize glare and light pollution, to achieve this, the fixtures need to be shielded or cut off. If

an outdoor fixture emits light over its own height, then it creates light pollution and should not be used.

Furthermore, it is important to use energy efficient light bulbs, such as Light Emitting Diodes (LED), since they minimize energy consumption and have a long lifespan between 50,000-70,000 hours, when operating on nonhigh temperature environments. Skylights --> pool of light train tracs --> interactive shapes

fully cut-off fixtures

non-shielded fixtures fully shielded fixtures

upright light poles children´s drawings --> playfulness low entrance (west) --> wayfinding

Fig. 3.15: illustration of design inspiration from site

Fig. 3.13: Types of fixtures that create light pollution. (source: Global Designing Cities organization website)

Fig. 3.16: Lonely skylight opening in the underpass

Fig. 3.14: Shielded fixtures that emit light focused to the street. (source: Global Designing Cities organization website)

3.7 Design inspiration from analysis

When the design process started, we began by having a look on the site analysis. The idea was to draw inspiration from the site itself (fig. 3.15), and the site offered plenty of ideas. The tunnel area has several architecturally interesting elements. First, the location under the train tracks and all the train sounds give food for imagination. We wanted to complement that train theme somehow in the design. Another interesting structural element in the tunnel are the “skylight openings”, in total 5 of them, out of which only 1 has actual opening for daylight (fig. 1.16). Most of the skylight structures remain sealed, allowing no daylight in. The reason for having these structures remains unknown – perhaps they have been open some time in history, or perhaps they have been built so there would be a possibility for opening in the future. Nevertheless, we saw great potential in these structures to create lighting that would complement this tunnel in specific. Also, the social analysis offered us with some ideas on how to go forward with the design. The user group of the tunnel is quite varied, with the school children, young adults from the dormitory, and families from the Yellow City. On the time of the design process there happened to be an exhibition of the children’s drawings in the tunnel. This gave us a message that there is a need for colour and playfulness in the long tunnel, and that we should remember the needs of the children in the design, while keeping in mind the needs of adult cyclists and pedestrians passing through on their daily commute. In addition to creating the design for people who use the tunnel daily, we aimed our direction to the entrance on Enghavevej. The entrance is architecturally interesting, since it has a lowered position under street level, and it is rather difficult to spot from Enghavevej side. As we mentioned several times on the site analysis how intriguing and beautiful The Railway City is, we started to think that it would be necessary to highlight the entrance in some way to make it more inviting and having more people explore the exceptional city.

SUMMARY: In terms of sustainability, the focus is the well-being of the residents, creating an energy efficient design and maintaining a dark sky. By using shielded or cut off fixtures that do not emit light over the height of the pole, but also using LEDs, we create a design that does not affect people but also saves energy. SUMMARY: The architectural elements of the site offered several possibilities and ideas for the design concept. The key elements that were picked from the architectural site analysis to the design concept, were the potential of the skylight opening structures, train theme as part of the historical heritage, the presence of the varied user groups, and the challenge of having an entrance that is positioned under ground level.