The surrounding context

Before explaining why and how the surrounding context should be taken into account for the design of lighting, the word context will be explain.

According to “La Real Academia Española” context comes from latin word “contextus”, which means “unión de cosas que se enlazan y entretejen”²⁸⁰.

The Brockhaus Enzyklopaedie says that context comes from the word in Latin

“contexere” which means “eng verknüpfen”²⁸¹

The Oxford Dictionaries explains that the word context comes from “Latin contextus, from con - together + texere to weave”²⁸².

No matter what are the roots, the meaning refers to a certain organization. That means to a configuration. In practice, the context of an object refers to a structure within something figures. Without that context the object could not be read, much less understood, but are light designers aware of the important of context for light design? Actually 100% of them take into consideration the context for their projects.

Some words and concepts change over time and in some cases fall into disuse. In other circumstances they are retaken and become the main idea of a new trend. This has been precislly the case of the word "context". In the first half of the twentieth century the use of this term was for the first time used as an idea to respect the history and the place, due to buildings and monuments are not isolated elements, but are part of a set. This set is known as the context.

In architecture the term context began to be reused more strongly in the second half of the twentieth century, when a movement wich fought for the respect of all the historical factors that influenced the production of space. This movement was called "contextualism ".

280 RAE 2012.

281 Brockhaus Enzyklopädie 2012.

282 Oxford Dictionaries 2012.

147 The context is integrated by; geographic, physical, cultural, historical, social factors and also by built elements which characterize a particular place where the historic building or monument are immersed. When these factors are not taken into consideration then the image of the city is harm. This brings as a consequence the loss of historical value, lack of private investors, tourist disinterest, impacting finally on the local economy.

The surrounding context is the immediately external environment which surrounds the historic building or monument. It is integrated by the natural and built context. The natural context is composed of physical and environmental factors, such as; geography, climate, hydrology, topography, vegetation, soil and sunlight. The artificial environment consists of all those elements that represent the influence of human culture, where we can find; buildings, monuments and infrastructure.

When historic buildings and monuments are surrounded by the darkness of night, they become a tempting scenario for lighting designers. Who make use of their technical knowledge to combine artificial light with darkness, resulting in a contrast which buildings are highlighted in relation to their immediate context. However, in some cases the works become the only actor in the scene. Lighting designers forgett completely the surrounding environment. This situation worsens when works are illuminated within a historic center or when the architectural work is placed next to a park, where shares the space (see image 91).

It is true that lighting is an important tool, which allows us to observe overnight objects and their features, but if it is not used carefully, illumination may exclude historic buildings or monuments. That means, while illuminated works have the main role in the scene, buildings or monuments from the surrounding environment are discriminated, as Marantz asseverates;

“If you light a building you give darkness to the context. All light is related to darkness”.

However, he is aware that although the surrounding buildings are not part of the project, the light designer has the responsibility not to exclude them from the scene.

According to Marantz the light designer should not attend to compete with the urban context, but what happen if the surrounding context has high level of illumination? Quintero thinks that if the historic building or monument has an over illuminated context, then it is possible to compete with it. Another possibility to him is to try to integrate in it, or as Chandhok says, to take advantage of the lights which come from the context, it means to use them in our lighting project.

Lighting should be a tool to be used as linker element of shapes and spaces within a same context. To achieve this is necessary to make a preliminary study of the surrounding context, beginning with the collection of basic data, such as: geographic location plans, architectural surveys, aerial photographs, study of weather, hydrology, soil, vegetation and

148 infrastructure. Afterwards all the information will be analized and advantages and disadvantages of the site and surrondings will be also established.

Thorugh this previous study of the surrounding context, it can be determined the best way to implement lighting without damaging the surrounding environment.

Image 91²⁸³. Daytime view of the Government Palace and its immediate surroundings, Colima, Mexico.

283 Wordpress 2011.

149 Image 92²⁸⁴. Government Palace, Colima, Mexico. Exclusion of adjacent historic buildings.

Image 93²⁸⁵. Government Palace, Colima, Mexico. Exclusion of the natural environment.

284 Enrique 2012.

285 Skyscrapercity 2011.

150 Through architectural elements of the Government Palace of Colima city in Mexico, we can determine that its style is neoclassical. The building was built in the late nineteenth century.

The adjacent building is the Cathedral of Colima. It has austere neoclassical elements dating from the same period of construction of the Government Palace. This is an example of when lighting project excludes the immediate context. In the case of the Cathedral, this building has the same age, however at night it can be only appreciated some of its elements, which are illuminated by the intrusive light that comes from the projected light of the Government Palace.

Furthermore, the park which is opposite to the Palace and like the Cathedral, it only receives the reflection of the light that comes from the Government Palace. The lighting designer did not into consideration the immediate context, just took advantage of it to highlight his lighting design.