WEBINAR Placemaking After Dark
Thursday 26 June 2025 – 15:30 to 16:45 (please note: all timings are CEST)
Presentations
Transforming Glasgow’s riverside: building public safety through a gender sensitive lens
by Juliet Amoruso, Senior Planner, Spatial Strategy Team at Glasgow City Council
Glasgow’s urban riverside is rich in history with its bustling, cosmopolitan past, however in recent years the city has turned its back on the river, with a lack of vibrancy and activity.
This talk explores a live project, Custom House Quay, which aims to transform a large public space on the River Clyde near Glasgow City Centre. It will touch upon how Glasgow is approaching urban design through a gender sensitive approach. The emerging masterplan strives to reimagine the space for the benefit of Glasgow’s citizens and visitors alike.
Juliet is a Chartered planner with a multidisciplinary background in town planning, urban research, and urban design, with 9 years of experience working in both public and private sectors.
She has provided design advice to clients on a range of sites, from small scale capacity studies, to the masterplanning of a garden village for 10,000 new homes on the outskirts of London.
In her current role at Glasgow City Council she is leading on improvements to the River Clyde and the creation of a ‘River Park’. She has a passion for urban waterways that flows into every aspect of her work.
Making Glasgow’s parks more inclusive at night through community engagement and prototyping
by Aoibhe Jessen, Landscape Technician, & Kevin Mc Cormick, Assistant Manager for Landscape Design, Glasgow City Council
Urban parks offer one of the few places in Glasgow which provide places of darkness. But in a city where winter sun sets by 4pm, it poses the question: should they be lit? On one hand, there are calls for safe walking routes which often means illuminated paths. On the other, numerous studies highlight the impact of artificial light on wildlife. With over 90 parks and gardens, Glasgow is no stranger to this problem.
This presentation will dive into the recent Glasgow Park Lighting Review.
Aoibhe Jessen is a Landscape Technician, working with the Glasgow City Council for 2 years, having started as a Graduate Officer working on Parks Lighting. She is currently working on Scottish Government Play Area Renewal Programme roll-out across Glasgow.
Kevin McCortmick is an Assistant Manager for Landscape Design, within the Greenspace and Biodiversity team. Kevin has over 10 years’ experience across Scottish local authorities working within the environmental services. More recently, he has been involved in Glasgow’s review of parks lighting as well as other place-based projects.
Park lighting Kerstroosplein: a new balance between people and nature in the city
by Arthur Noordhoek, Advisor Lighting, City of Eindhoven
In recent years, the City of Eindhoven has focused on creating a healthy, safe and green living environment for its citizens. A public space that invites people to meet and move. After sunset, we support this with customised lighting. Both people and animals are taken into account. This lecture will discuss the special way in which lighting in the Kerstroosplein park was created based on research and design by Studio Philip Ross, Het Luxlab and IK UX. A special process in which both residents and nature were given a voice. In this way, a pleasant atmosphere that feels safe was created with very little light and colours that burden nature as little as possible.
Arthur Noordhoek is a passionate light consultant at the municipality of Eindhoven. Over the past 30 years, he has worked in various positions at the municipality of Eindhoven on local, national and European projects focused on innovation, digitalisation and sustainability of lighting.
He is currently responsible for policy development around light and darkness. In addition, he holds positions on behalf of the municipality of Eindhoven at Dutch knowledge centres for light and lighting and has been a member of the Executive Committee of LUCI since 2024.
Community engagement for a downtown action plan: Lynn MA & Providence RI, United States
by Joseph I. Mulligan III, Director of Planning and Development, City of Providence
This presentation is focused on the deployment of illumination strategies to address community concerns about safety and downtown vibrancy in post-industrial northeast American cities.
Joe Mulligan is a planning, design and construction professional with over thirty years of broad experience in the built environment. He is currently the City of Providence’s Director of Planning and Development and Executive Director of the Providence Redevelopment Agency.
His work encompasses a variety of project types ranging from intimate placemaking strategies to complex municipal scale initiatives that transform communities.
Mr. Mulligan holds a BA from The College of the Holy Cross, a B. Arch from Boston Architectural College and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School. He is a resident of the Jewelry District in Providence.
Are you afraid of the dark? A Light Justice approach
by Leni Schwendinger, Creative Director, Leni Schwendinger Light Projects
Community engagement is key to placemaking after dark. Two Light Projects’ approaches to participation will be introduced for this webinar. NightSeeing™ Navigate Your Luminous City, a strategically planned after-sunset walk introducing lighting and nighttime design for district improvements. And the D.I.Y. Lighting program, an engagement framework, which emerged from the pandemic.
You will learn about a seminal American planner’s provocative critique of participation, from passive engagement to active citizen control, which can be useful for gauging real value today.
Both Light Projects’ programs require dynamic participation. NightSeeing™ provides active learning by walking, talking, and bonding with neighbors. And D.I.Y. which requires community co-design and hands-on light-art fabrication in public space.
Leni Schwendinger is a published, award-winning, authority on city lighting issues, with more than 20 years of experience, creating worldwide illuminated environments.
This work is shared through Leni’s public speaking and envisioning engagements, including “NightSeeing™, Navigate Your Luminous City” international program.
In practice, her projects focus on infrastructure and public art at sites such as subways and large-scale bridges, among others.
Her D.I.Y. Lighting Program is a community engagement, street project where citizens in under-served neighborhoods create light-art in cooperative groups. Leni is a fellow in the Design Trust for New York’s Design for Public Space and Urban Design Forum.
Photo credits
©Glasgow City Council; ©Bart van Overbeeke; ©City of Providence