A influência da iluminação artificial no comportamento de usuários de praças públicas: O caso da Praça Coronel Pedro Osório.

Abstract

In many countries, urban revitalization projects have used artificial lighting as a tool to recover public places abandoned by the user due to lack of security and vandalism of open spaces. In Brazil it is found that the standards of urban lighting are concerned predominantly with the lighting of roads with vehicle traffic leaving the discretion of the designer illuminance levels to be applied in the squares and urban parks. The government invests high resources on projects that do not meet the expectations of users and do not solve the security issues. The objective of this research is to identify criteria that should be considered in the design of artificial lighting of public squares analyzing factors such as the level of illuminance in the square, the contribution of the immediate surroundings of the lighting in the square, the degree of integration and visibility of paths square in relation to its surroundings and user behavior. The research stems from the comparison between the use and appropriation of the square by its users during the day and at night in order to identify changes in the dynamics of this urban space due to the lack of natural light as well as to the presence of artificial light. The case study here is Coronel Pedro Osorio Square. This square was chosen due to its historic importance to the development of Pelotas, as it was the first public space in the city to receive artificial lighting. The research methods of data collection were: physical and luminance surveys, behavior maps, space syntax maps of the square and surroundings, interviews, and questionnaires. The data analysis methods were quantitative and qualitative. The results of this research have allowed drawing conclusions about the impact of artificial lighting on the use of public places at night, indicating criteria to be considered in the artificial lighting design of these spaces. As the study of the degree of integration and visibility, user perception of analysis, study of lighting and uniformity levels, influence of illuminance in space and surroundings and the identification of the places perceived as unsafe.