Smart Lighting is widely viewed as a means to reduce energy use, streamline city services and lower maintenance costs of public lighting. These are valid perspectives and useful pursuits, but they leave a blind spot that needs urgent attention: how the application of Smart Lighting technologies could affect and benefit people in public space. Illumination as it is currently deployed is mostly...
The present article describes a perspective on tactical urban lighting and its power as a source for disruption and innovation in the field of urban lighting. It is the result of an applied research that is currently being carried out by a task group formed by technicians, planners, managers and designers from different private companies and public institutions with responsibility and...
Outdoor lighting has mainly been approached as an engineering subject throughout its history. The current urban lighting requirements are established upon factors which mainly refer to motorised traffic dynamics. As a consequence, excessive lighting levels are found in the city environments with a negative impact on the human as well as the environmental sphere. By synthesising scientific...
In our well-lit cities today, light pollution has become an increasing issue and serious threat of natural darkness and the view to a night sky full of stars. Darkness is not only a natural part of the day- and night-time cycle, but it is a basic need for all living creatures. And as light takes over in our night-time environment, this causes issues for both wildlife, nature, and human health....
With the recent widespread adoption of LED lighting in outdoor areas, numerous concerns have been raised about the potential for harmful effects on humans, animals, plants, and the night sky. These stem from the high blue light content of some LED bulbs and an incentive to increase lighting levels caused by higher efficiency and lower costs. While new lighting installations are often described...
