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.

Indigenous culture is at the heart of Indian Community School in Franklin, Wisconsin. Designed by studio:indigenous, the 150,000-sq-ft school serving grades K4-8 merges cultural values with education by bringing the surrounding natural environment into the striking interior learning spaces and gathering centers. Woven along a wooded hillside, the building is made of wood, copper, and limestone, with large windows offering expansive views of the local landscape. Inside, the use of natural materials—additional wood, marble, and glass—reinforces the connection with the outdoors, while migratory paths throughout support flow in a space created to foster community.

The school’s original lighting, circa 2007, not only failed to showcase its award-winning architectural design, but also failed to serve the teachers and students that use the building every day. The school’s upgraded lighting system, completed in 2023, highlights the building’s original architectural concepts and provides adequate functional illumination in classrooms and common areas, enhancing visual comfort and productivity, as well as safety and security, inside and out.

This project was featured on the cover of designing lighting magazine - May 2024 issue

Any lighting project in our communities - whether for interiors, the outdoors, or infrastructure like roadways - presents our industry with the opportunity to be a good neighbor to those around us or become a nuisance, uphold our obligations to ecological responsibility, and to develop infrastructure lighting that is safe and equitable without leaving the needs of some users behind.

However, conversations with city staff and community members over what makes a quality lighting design and what to expect from our work can be difficult. Many municipal lighting regulations are too minimal or out of date to be useful in lighting design work.

This presentation will provide a vision for what a comprehensive lighting master plan, a lighting ordinance, or both can accomplish for the communities where attendees live and work. These documents help facilitate communication, improve the efficiency of lighting projects by setting clearer expectations, and show neighbors (and ourselves) what to expect from the lighting around them.

The process of developing a lighting master plan offers the opportunity for public outreach and identifying areas currently underserved by lighting infrastructure, improving awareness and equity. For city staff, a dedicated lighting ordinance gives them a more enforceable tool to address and prevent lighting issues in their communities while gaining insight into our industry.

Improving lighting regulations in the areas we live and work in is a win-win scenario we can all advocate for.