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There is something positive about it. While light space is eliminated by the materiality of objects, darkness is ‘filled’, it touches the individual directly… Anthony Vidler, The Architectural Uncanny2
Darkness this good was hard to come by, and so much darkness in one place lit up the sky. Richard Powers, Bewilderment3
Urban Scotoecologies is born out of the necessity and the will to study the possibilities and impact of darkness in the daytime city. The neologism Scotoecology3 derives from Scotobiology , the branch of biology dedicated to the study of living organisms in darkness and the biological need for periods of darkness. We extend this notion not only to living organisms but also to inert matter, thus allowing architecture to play an active role in the chain of metabolic exchanges. When the lights are off, environments, including all entities/actors/specimens etc., confuse and interact. A series of case studies, developed in the first half of this year-long design studio, gave us first insights into a complex phenomenon: darkness as a medium and design tool. Partial aspects and activities of life in a city, like production, transportation, dwelling, recreation, healing, cultivation and socializing, were individually situated and tested in dark situations generated during daytime.
In most cases, it turned out that architecture imploded, and what was thought of and perceived a priori as negative space - because of its darkness - contracted and transformed into boundary-less interior spaces. Not because of infiniteness, but because of the merging of the subjects with their immediate environment. Darkness has shown itself to be of a less mouldable and malleable nature than light. It has neither a source nor a surface for projection. It won’t be absorbed, and it won’t be emitted. Darkness is neither fluid nor static. It is easier to perceive than to grasp. In darkness, sharp edges become blunt, space is diluted and expands or contracts, our senses sharpen. Temperature descends. In this regard, darkness has become a twofold program for our studio and research: on the one hand, it is our object of study, and on the other, a speculative design tool to generate and implement Urban Scotoecologies - ecologies whose aim is to explore new ways of dealing with overheated cities. Whether the city is partially submerged in darkness only during the night, tempered by many illumination sources and light pollution, or darkness only dwells in the city’s underground constructions and infrastructures, with the upcoming second part of our Scotostudio, we will pursue questions of how to live together in darkness in broad daylight. Luciano Parodi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Carceri Series, Plate XIV. Etching on white laid paper, 1745
IKA S2022
