ArchLIGHT Summit

Light has the power to change the way we perceive a place; to make it safer, more attractive, and more inviting. However, our urban areas are not always optimized for human activity after dark and are often more focused on illumination targets and the needs of vehicular traffic, than our visual needs to fully interpret the scene. Lighting design needs to consciously consider all types of social movement at night.

We shall discuss the research and practical applications of NVAs (Nighttime Vulnerability Assessment), and explore how they can provide us with the necessary information through the case study areas to allow us to engage with concepts of pedestrian safety and equal access after dark, reflect on possible lighting vulnerabilities, assess the risks involved, and act to mitigate and reduce the risk to the public.

Our main focus will be how NVAs can be used within Lighting Masterplans to implement lighting changes that are relevant to the space, rather than just adding more lighting where it isn’t necessarily required or would add into existing issues.

Using a more human centred design approach alongside the NVA data allow us to understand how different people move around our cities in the hours of darkness. Being marginalized in society, whether through gender, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, or ability, can limit and hinder one’s ability to feel safe and comfortably navigate public spaces at night, and we as designers need to ensure we design our spaces so that everyone feels safe within them.