Hi there, we are Alana Kim, Nate Klass, and Esther Ng. Our project is called Illuminate, which is a smart lighting system for better place-making, expanding the usefulness of public spaces around the city by activating them after sundown.
What is the issue?
The problem as we see it, is two-fold. Dark parks lead to a feeling of unsafety and are not activated as places people want to be. Today, the issue is that many public spaces today are under-lit, leading to under-use which is why many feel unsafe in parks at night. This is specifically aimed at smaller neighborhood parks, not larger parks like Fairmount.
The safety question:
According to the Project for Public Spaces lighting can be used to provide a greater range and choice of time in which the park is accessible for use. People feel safer when they can see ahead and around themselves.
This is related to an issue of illegibility. Dark parks are illegible to residents and users, which means that the environments in these parks are not easily understood. The ease with which a park can be recognized is an important method for making people feel at ease and secure. Improving lighting in smaller pieces of a park when people are in it makes legibility more automatic.
The activation question:
In studies we found, uneven and dark lighting lead to unfavorable experiences in public spaces after dark. People don’t want to spend time in parks that feel unsafe. For parks right near commercial corridors like 52nd street, unactivated spaces are a waste – at night, restaurants can benefit from more people feeling safe and secure being on the street and out in the public realm.
What is the solution?
This project easily creates additional park lighting that is ambient, intentional, and very directed, in that it creates small rooms of light. By using LED light strips, we use less power and can draw the needed power for this project right from the utility power source. This is not a replacement for light poles – it is an addition to them. Traditional light poles light and activate pathways in the park, leaving grassy areas of the park dark and useless once the sun goes down. Using existing lighting infrastructure and adding to it, we will sense people entering the room and create atmospheric lighting to make being in the space more enjoyable at night. This will be both a safety boost and a placemaking boost. Opening this space up to activity, especially right off of the 52nd street commercial corridor, can create more useful public space for residents in the area.
Where do we see this being implemented?
We were interested in place-making, and were thinking about how to find ways to improve public spaces with small interventions that have out-sized effects. This lighting system creates rooms of light in public spaces, illuminating parts of a park when activity is sensed.
We are using as a case study Malcolm X Park in West Philly at the corner of Pine Street and 51st Street. It’s a case study because it could be easily applied to many other parks like it, such as Carroll Park at West Girard and 59th Street.
In order to build a working prototype, we wanted to simulate two “rooms” in the park. We chose the northeast corner of the park as our prototype boundary, and built a model to match.
What does this project look like in its implementation?
In our project, as we see it, light poles already in place will have sensors attached to them that communicate with the string lights. Sensors are pointed across the “boundary” and can see when people enter the “room.” Each room’s lighting temperature and brightness will be based on the activity sensed in the room.
How does it work?
First, light is only added to the park when needed. Our sensor system detects when ambient light levels drop below a pre-set level, initially set at 50 lux, the recommended light level needed for activities in public space. When the ambient light falls below this level, our system kicks into action.
When it kicks into action, the entire park is lit to our base level. The base level is something that is variable, depending on the time of day.
If, for instance, the lights turn on at 4pm (as they would in winter), it would turn on to our base level. Each hour, the lights would increase to a new base line that is brighter than the previous hour, to a maximum base level of 150 lux. This baseline will be maintained until 10pm, when the system turns off completely as the park is now closed, and the system will not contribute to light pollution too severely.
Someone enters room 1.
Within each hour, the sensor readings will adjust the light in two ways – in warmth and in brightness. As more people enter the room, the light changes from a cooler white to a warmer light. The sensors would work similarly for brightness – light brightness will increase as more activity is sensed entering the room.
What does this product look like?
The proximity sensor will be placed on the outside of a box that can be attached to current light poles, about four to five feet off the ground. The box will contain both the Arduino board and a Wifi breakout board. Being attached to the light pole will allow the box filled with boards and sensors to be hooked into the municipal power supply easily.
How can this project help improve parks?
Including a Wifi breakout board in the product box allows for the collection of a number of data about park usage, that can be used by the organizations that install the system.
The data sent back to the server can include:
- The paths in a park that lead more people to a specific room.
- Which rooms are most active.
- When are rooms active.
- Total amount of activity in a room after dark
- Total amount of activity in a park after dark
- Compare activity detected across rooms
- Compare parks, and compare a park across days
This can ultimately inform the city how to better allocate park funding and manage resources. They can better answer questions like why people use the park as they do? What makes those sections more popular? How can activation be improved in a park?
These questions led us to attempt to understand our potential buyer. Who is this product best suited to?
We see this system being best suited to municipal organizations like the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation department or a Business Improvement District like the Center City District. These organizations have a vested interest in activating public spaces. By installing a system like illuminate, these groups can activate public spaces after dark, bringing people to the area. We hope this product can add greater benefits to businesses on nearby commercial corridors.
This system also benefits neighborhood residents! They benefit from having greater room to gather and connect, during more hours of the day.
We see this project having great potential to quickly and easily boost the public realm in areas that do not always see public investment.
Please feel free to leave comments and questions in the comment section below.