COLUMN #2

For centuries, the paradigms of architectural theory, discourse and practice were based on the course of the day and the sun. In Vitruvius' De architectura, night is only mentioned in passing; it also does not appear in the treatises of Renaissance thinkers such as Alberti or Palladio. It was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that the invention of artificial light and its spread in both private and public spaces led to the night acquiring a different impact in architecture. This volume is a first attempt to write a chronological history of night-time architecture. The studies show the extent to which human identity has always been determined by the night, without which the spaces of living, working and culture would be inconceivable. By analyzing and investigating “nocturnal scenes”, this book aims to show that the night is a laboratory in which space is rethought and new forms of coexistence are ultimately developed.