The glare of almost perpetual digital day light is stealing those all-important fundamental relationships with our nocturnal cities.
A new study encourages us to embrace the night and regain that rare liberation and exhilaration in the urban landscape where the dark can provide a rich potential for our senses.
‘Dark Matters’ is a new book by Nick Dunn Professor of Urban Design at Lancaster University which presents a new way to think about cities at night.
Professor Dunn proposes that our contemporary world of commerce has robbed urban dwellers of something more than sleep.
He claims we have also lost the tradition of night walking and all the attendant adventures that may be found in the urban night.
Rather than something to be feared, this book contends that walking in the nocturnal city is an exaltation of endless discovery and joy in being alive.
It is, says Professor Dunn, a manifesto for thinking and doing things differently and a chance to escape from the everyday.
“Dark Matters explores the city at night as a place and time within which escape from the confines of daylight is possible,” he adds. “More specifically, it is a state of being.
“The question may no longer be about what spaces we wish to engage with but when we do…”
Research for the book involved no less than 2,000 hours (473 nights) exploring and walking cities at night.
Professor Dunn, who trained as an architect, researches and explores the future of cities and the implications of technologies upon our lifestyles.
His book: Dark Matters: A Manifesto for the Nocturnal City is published today (November 25) by Zero Books.