Uneven illumination: Light masterplanning and the infrastructural politics of neoliberal urbanisation in Zurich

Abstract

This paper traces the mutually constitutive relationships between nocturnal illumination and urban transformation in Zurich, arguing that light masterplanning, rather than merely being a passive urban infrastructure, has actively produced new spatial and temporal frontiers of neoliberal urbanisation through the nocturnalisation of urban form and the diurnalisation of the night. Drawing on archival records, planning documents, expert interviews and media sources, the paper situates Zurich's contemporary light masterplan, the Plan Lumière , within a longer genealogy of light masterplanning – extending from early electrification and the emergence of Lichtwirtschaft (light management) in the interwar period to the neoliberal urban transformations of the 21st century. It shows how light masterplanning has differentially shaped urbanisation across distinct political economic conjunctures – from early public utility grids to light festivals and neoliberal masterplans – revealing how these practices have contributed to the embedding of frontier logics in the nocturnal (and diurnal) production of urban space and Zurich's transition into a post-industrial ‘global city’. By historicising the mutual constitution of nocturnal illumination and urban transformation, the paper contributes to a critical examination of the ongoing reconfiguration of urban space through techno-managerial ‘fixes’ such as the digitalisation of light infrastructure, deployed under environmental narratives. Ultimately, the paper argues that rethinking nocturnal illumination as a socio-political infrastructure – rather than merely a techno-scientific one – opens possibilities for addressing contemporary urban-ecological challenges beyond techno-fixes alone.