Cities of Light : Two Centuries of Urban Illumination

Cities of Light explores the history of urban electrification in major world metropolises like New York, London, Paris, Tokyo and Mumbai, but also looks at lighting as a kind of urban design itself. Through case studies of some of the world’s largest and most dramatically lit cities, the book examines the shock brought by early urban lighting, with new design forms like outdoor advertising, public cinema, and nightlife photography pushing the world into modernism. The book looks to the future of mediascapes, lighting masterplans, and "guerrilla lighting" in emerging cities in the UAE and Asia to see what the future of the all-night city will look like.

Cities of Light is the first global overview of modern urban illumination, a development that allows human wakefulness to colonize the night, doubling the hours available for purposeful and industrious activities.　 Urban lighting is undergoing a revolution due to recent developments in lighting technology, and increased focus on sustainability and human-scaled environments. Cities of Light is expansive in coverage, spanning two centuries and touching on developments on six continents, without diluting its central focus on architectural and urban lighting.　 Covering history, geography, theory, and speculation in urban lighting, readers will have numerous points of entry into the book, finding it easy to navigate for a quick reference and or a coherent narrative if read straight through. With chapters written by respected scholars and highly-regarded contemporary practitioners, this book will delight students and practitioners of architectural and urban history, area and cultural studies, and lighting design professionals and the institutional and municipal authorities they serve.

At a moment when the entire world is being reshaped by new lighting technologies and new design attitudes, the longer history of urban lighting remains fragmentary.　 Cities of Light aims to provide a global framework for historical studies of urban lighting and to offer a new perspective on the fast-moving developments of lighting today.