文：丁平 《灯光与设计》照明顾问
by Ding Ping Lighting Consultant for Luce e Design
朋友的丈夫是专业摄影师。最近有幸在微博上看到其最新的摄影作品——天津夜景。朋友也是照明圈内资深人士，用她的话说，天津“照明的整体亮度控制，色温控制都不错，看来城市照明有点意思了”。
有另一个朋友前一阵子回家乡，一个面积约为2800平方公里的县城。半年没回去，她发现家乡的每一个小区临街的一面，整幢楼房的轮廓和窗户之间都镶上了LED灯带。白天看去，灯带的背景色彩多得就像油画家的调色盘，夜晚看去，灯带亮度很高，色彩、色温缺乏整体控制，凌乱的景象更像是回到了90年代初——霓虹灯满布大街的年代。中国多数的“亮化”失败，其中一个原因，在于它的发展还不够成熟，掌握技术的专业人士不一定具有良好的审美观。一些地方政府部门甚至设立“亮化办”，“亮化”的结果却不一定与“美化”有关。而大量滥用LED产品，最后也不一定跟节能挂钩。
也有崇尚“黑暗”的例子。我们在江南某城市完成了一个大型商业项目，因为摄影师时间安排不开，等了一年才前往拍照。联系业主方，却被告知，最近市里有节能减排政策下来，夜景照明都不能开，来了也没用。该城市拥有深厚历史底蕴，近年来发展飞速，试想，这样一座城市，没有灯光是怎样的一个光景：寥寥数盏满足功能照明的路灯并不足以诠释整座城市的过往、现在和未来。
针对一个城市或建筑做照明设计时，往往需要重点关注：民族风格、地方特色、灯光环境协调与审美、灯光环境污染、并与灯光的节能合理地在应用一起。以我们曾经完成的广西大厦照明改造为例：改造之前的广西大厦，通体被打亮，夜晚看去，光线很足，但是过于苍白，缺乏表现力。事实上，大厦外立面镶有象征广西壮族文化的图腾。改造之后，广西大厦整体亮度降了下来，不像之前所呈现的“凶猛”状态，而是融入北京的夜晚；对门口图腾所进行的重点照明，使整幢建筑多了一分恬静、神秘，这样做，既节能又提高了人们对建筑的认知度。
中国城市，夜晚要不要亮不亮起来？答案是肯定的。夜景亮化，无非是让规划得当的空间在夜晚依然呈现“给力”状态；或者让白天看不怎么出众的地方，在夜晚通过照明的正能量，美化突出需要表现的一面。当然，这只发生在当亮化没有违背“美学”初衷的时候。
My friend’s husband, a photographer, has put one of his new works, “Night view of Tianjin”, on his micro-blog. Also as a professional in the lighting industry, my friend comments on Tianjin’s “illumination level and color temperature is that they are well controlled, thus making urban nightscape lighting becoming interesting.”
Another friend of mine got news from her 2800 km2 hometown that she just left 6 months ago where LEDs were installed facing to the street on every façade of residential buildings. During the daytime, the LED fixtures themselves are also colourful that the buildings look like a palette of colors. At night, the light they emit are too bright without unified color control, making the whole town become disordered as if it were the early 90s with lots of neon lighting.
One of the reasons for such lighting conditions in Chinalies in the fact that this industry is still in its early development stage. Another reason is that some professional lighting designers lack a sense of esthetics. Although some local governments have set up “urban lighting offices” to work on nightscapes, sometimes the result does not match the esthetics of the original idea. Furthermore the overuse of LEDs leads to energy waste.
There are also examples within the pursuit of “maintaining darkness”. For instance, the owner of a 2010 newly opened shopping center has to follow a city wide local energy saving policy preventing the façade lighting to be lit up at night, although it is using LEDs to cleanly wall wash its facade. It is a fast developing city with a long history. We can’t even imagine how it looks if it is without nightscape lighting; only a few street lights are not enough to relate the past, present and future of the whole city.
When lighting design is implemented in a city or a building, it needs to focus on the following factors: national style , local characteristics, esthetics, lighting pollution and a consideration of sustainable development. For instance, the lighting ofGuangxiMansion before its 2004 renovation was using flood lights resulting in a flat and boring façade without any expression. In fact, there are emblems on the facade, which are the national symbols of Guangxi Zhuang. After the lighting renovation, playing with the layers of light and shadow made the building esthetically integrated intoBeijing’s nightscape. Through the accent lighting on the emblems the whole building reveals itself, expressing its beautiful architectural features and inviting guests for a tranquil cultural journey into Guangxi while saving energy at the same time .
Lighting at night, to be or not to be? It’s obvious that urban nightscape lighting is necessary. But it has to show the splendid and best aspect of a city through reasonable space planning, highlighting places that are easily neglected during the day. Of course, such situations can only be achieved when the elements discussed here are satisfied.
