Light & Engineering Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 34-38, 2015 Svetotekhnika No. 2, 2015, pp. 26-29 CRITERIA FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY OF A CITY’S ARTIFICIAL LIGHT MEDIUM Natalya V. Bystryantseva RULD Creative association of light designers and Research University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics, St.-Petersburg E-mail: svs.lighting@gmail.com ABSTRACT One of the professional creative tasks of a light designer is the creation of light medium of a city meeting certain artistic and functional features. <...> The article determines criteria for a comprehensive evaluation of the visual quality of an artifi cial light medium of a city and proposes a new criterion: “design properties of light medium of a city”. <...> Keywords: light medium, medium of a city, light design, art features, functional features, comprehensive evaluation, criteria, new criterion A city medium, whether it is a residential area, square, or a street, has a number of typical features in terms of urban layout, architectural and composition features, such as urban in-fi lling, which is dependent on the landscape features and on the public and personal activities of the inhabitants [1]. <...> When designing illumination of a city medium, light designers consider different factors, among which the most essential are characteristics and functional attributes of city spaces [2]. <...> The fi rst factor is based on the concepts about the city, region, on a fragment of the city medium, their Fig. 1. “Existing light medium of Volkhonka area” [4] 34 Fig. 2. “Research of light medium quality for Volkhonka area” [4] Light & Engineering Vol. 23, No. 2 Fig. 3. <...> Illumination of the entrance area (in Prechistenka street), 2012 © D. Podgursky type, size, structure and spatial arrangement, stylistic characteristics of the architectural environment and on the polychrome. <...> In other words, characteristics of city spaces are driven by size and spatial concepts, which are formed by a specifi c society. <...> Therefore, the formation of light medium of a city fragment should begin from a comprehensive evaluation of its functional tasks and spatial arrangement. <...> This should be the basis and the cause of the light composition solution. <...> One of the features of city illumination theory and practice in Russia is that artistic and aesthetics concepts <...>