ABSTRACT
We get used to space, and get used to the entities and flows that have been selected to compose the space we live in. We get used to the way these entities and flows are organized. Any unexpected entities and flows that enter the space, or any disruptions in the spatial arrange ment we are used to, create imbalances in our spatial matrix – the way we perceive and understand space. Spatial arrangements change, true. And they change both with the entrance of new elements onto the scene as well as with the re-emergence of obliterated elements. The appearance of motorized vehicles was disrupt ive for cities: they introduced speeds that were unknown to city life, they changed the way other entities and flows had to be organized and relate to each other. Roads were widened, and the street grid was rectified to accommodate motor vehicles. Like wise, public lighting has definitively transformed urban space. For one thing, it added time to public life in the streets and changed social life. Today,
when blackouts occur, they do not remind us that once cities were dark after dusk. Instead of pointing to the fact that artificial lighting is a relatively new urban entity, blackouts seem to introduce a new entity to the urban space: darkness. Both new elements and the re-emergence of obliterated elements challenge the way we deal with urban spaces. How - ever, changes in the urban space tend to occur slowly and are accompanied by social transformations (the introduction of motorized vehicles or public lighting) or are the temporary results of failures (blackouts).
