Envisioning the future of public lighting with citizens for upcoming technologies

Abstract

Today’s cities yearn for new technological infrastructure to become cities of tomorrow. Sensor based intelligent street lighting by promising energy and financial savings are being provisioned to be a functional alternative to conventional street lighting. But involving citizens’ participation in planning such new urban infrastructure and its services is far from simple. In our project using constructive and user centred design research methods we engaged with city officials and citizens as users of public lighting to ideate the potential of future technologies interacting with public lighting. Through citizens’ participation, we explored possible applications in visioning urban environments with autonomous cars, Li-Fi and domestic energy storage, and how these upcoming technologies could have an impact on public lighting. With a synthesis of this process we present five potential urban environment characteristics when upcoming technologies reflexively interact with urban outdoor lighting.