The Philosophy of Illumination

Why does the lit tower move us? Lighting designer Rogier van der Heide suggests: "Darkness is possibility; light is actuality. The tower lit doesn't just reveal iron—it reveals aspiration made tangible. We see our dreams given form and brightness."

The illumination creates what Japanese aestheticians call "ma"—the pregnant emptiness between. The dark spaces between lights become as important as brightness itself. The tower doesn't eliminate night but converses with it.

Philosopher Gaston Bachelard, writing about the poetics of space, might have been describing the illuminated tower: "Light makes the world grow. In its presence, objects dare to exist fully. The tower lit isn't the same object as the tower dark—light creates new being."