ROLE OF URBAN NIGHTSCAPE IN GOOD PERCEPTION OF THE CITY

Abstract

The way people perceive the city’s elements at night is totally depends on lighting design and man-made facilities. Due to the development of cities’ economic and citizen’s life style, the nightscape of the city became as important as the appearance of the city at daytime and sometimes it is more important because it can make more impact on people’s minds about the city. Though the potential of Khartoum city to become an iconic lighted city on the Nile river, the city at night looks deserted and dark, also it has a huge amount of lighting pollution and sky glow. This thesis aimed to achieve the proper understanding of urban nightscape and the strategies that can enhance the perception of the city to apply it in Khartoum city. To achieve these objectives, the thesis asked many questions which have been answered from the theoretical studies and nightscape analysis. This thesis uses descriptive analysis for specific sites that have been chosen in Khartoum city to figure out the nightscape statement of the city and to be a starting point toward developing the city. The study found that there is a huge amount of lighting pollution specially sky glow that caused by poor lighting facilities that have been used for streets and buildings, also there is a financial issue makes the overall nightscape of the city dark more than bright. Khartoum city is an excrescence city, therefore, the architects and urban designer must be aware about the lighting design in the very beginning stages of the projects design and take the lights into account while designing and improving the projects. Also the government and owners must be aware about the nightscape statement and its role in the growth of the city economy.