In comparison with the daytime, the city at night entails dramatic changes in visibility, movement, rhythm, activity, inhabitation and light. Yet our 'night cities' are rarely considered as a topic of architectural investigation.

The Night City studio project, run in the first year of the Master of Architecture (Professional) degree this year at Unitec, offered twelve students an opportunity to approach architectural design through research into lighting conditions found on their chosen site. Students focused on Karangahape Road, as its environs support a unique, active nightlife and contain a variety of urban morphologies and lighting conditions.

Shopfronts, a cemetery, parks, motorways, light industry, service alleys, landmark buildings, single residences, bars, restaurants, sex shops and strip clubs all exist within a single, linear urban system, and all have implications for the way that spaces are defined with light and/or darkness. This summer installation for the Objestspace Window Gallery was curated by Unitec staffers Krystina Kaza and David Rhodes, and features three outstanding Night City student projects by Carley Lockie, Tony Ng and Scott Mobbs.