Churches at Night: Only the Stained Glass Glows

The exterior of a church at night, where the stone mass is completely without external lighting, appearing as a dark gray silhouette in the night, with only the outlines of buttresses and spires discernible by ambient light. All light comes from the interior: the stained glass of the high clerestory windows and rose windows is illuminated by internal lights, appearing from the outside as saturated patches of red, blue, and gold, with clear lead lines of the patterns, like glowing jewels set in the black stone wall. The light from the windows casts faint colored halos on the window sills and surrounding stone. The shape of the entire building is implied by the positions of these glowing window openings. Avoid: installing floodlights on the exterior walls, illuminating the stone, making the stained glass lose its color, adding contour lighting.

Translated from Chinese by AI.

夜間的教堂外觀,石造的量體完全沒有外部照明,在夜色中呈現深灰的剪影,只能靠天光辨認出扶壁與尖塔的輪廓。所有的光都來自室內:高側窗與玫瑰窗的彩繪玻璃被內部的燈照亮,從外面看是一片片飽和的紅、藍、金,圖案的鉛條分割清晰,像鑲在黑色石牆上的發光寶石。窗的光在窗台與周邊石材上留下微弱的彩色暈染。整棟建築的形狀由這些發光的窗洞位置暗示出來。避免:在外牆加裝投光燈、把石材打亮、讓彩繪玻璃失去顏色、加入輪廓照明。