How outdoor lighting can create welcoming, safe and inclusive environments.
The way we illuminate space has the power to change it’s mood, function, and appearance. In fact, well thought out lighting transforms the world around us, creating welcoming spaces, improving safety and accessibility, conserving energy, as well as improving our health and the environment. Outdoor lighting can enhance security, encourage social interaction, and create a sense of place that invites people to gather and connect.
However, achieving these goals requires carefully balancing functionality with aesthetics and sustainability.
How can outdoor lighting enhance public spaces?
Lighting for mood:
Lighting has a profound effect on the areas around us. The colour of lighting, and it’s intensity influence emotions, behaviour, and how areas are experienced.
Warm lighting creates calm, personal, and relaxing atmospheres. Using lights with reddish and orange tones makes shared spaces feel intimate and comfortable, and even encourages social interaction.
On the other hand, cool lighting with blue and white tones creates stronger illumination and an alert ambiance. This is useful for industry or places of work but can prevent people from relaxing, especially at night when the body naturally seeks to wind down.
As well as the colour temperature of the light, the luminous output is important too. Powerful lighting, regardless of colour temperature make spaces feel harsh and uninviting.
Lighting for accessibility and security:
Lighting schemes should account for the needs of people using a space. Implementing things like accent lighting for accessible routes and staircases to aid navigation in low light areas.
Illuminating amenities, like benches or drinking fountains, with ground and wall lights will provide functionality and create small pockets of light without over lighting.
In addition to enhancing aesthetics, effective lighting should make spaces secure by improving visibility. Lights around entryways and dark corners can deter crime, and make criminals easier to detect. Motion detectors and switches can be used, to avoid unnecessary lighting.
Architectural Feature lighting:
Furthermore, architectural lighting draws focus to certain aspects of an outdoor space, creating character and emotion.
Lighting designers use things like uplighting to highlight building facades and statues, creating dramatic effects and changing the appearance and feel of an area.
By drawing focus to, and enhancing landmarks and public art, lighting designers can create and enhance unique urban identities and sense of place.
Lighting for sport
Sports fields required high lumen floodlights for proper illumination.
Modern LEDs are highly energy efficient, which means they can specified to produce just enough light to effectively illuminate a sports area, while minimising light spill that could pollute the surrounding environment. The International DarkSky Association recommends limiting light spill to no more than 15% of the total lumens outside the playing area.
While TV broadcast sports need high lumen levels for optimal visibility and colour clarity, limiting the level of illumination at non professional grounds to recreational levels can limit over lighting and save energy.
Coupled with the use of curfews and light shields, skyglow and light pollution can be minimised in residential areas.
Things to Consider when Lighting Outdoors
Outdoor Lighting and health
When lighting outdoor spaces it’s important to be aware of the power light has over our biology.
Cool temperature (blue and white) lights impact people’s circadian rhythms and endocrine systems.
Although blue light is not inherently harmful, exposure around night time can confuse sleep and wake cycles. It does this by stimulating the production of cortisol, the hormone responsible for wakefulness and inhibiting production of the hormone responsible for sleep, melatonin.
Eventually, circadian rhythm disruption leads to the development of chronic and degenerative diseases. These include heart disease, autoimmune conditions, chronic fatigue, diabetes and even cancer.
Given the impact light has on health, it’s important to illuminate public spaces with biologically friendly warm lighting after sunset.
Environmental impacts of light.
Bright outdoor lighting disturbs the biology of animals as well as humans.
Insects are found with less frequency in hedgerows lit by blue LED lights. A drop in insect populations has knock on effects on other species like small mammals who feed on insects.
Bright lights make night time seem like day to nocturnal animals, disturbing their natural behaviours. Predators use the cover of darkness to hunt, while other animals breed in the night. Sea turtles use moonlight to navigate from beaches into the ocean, and human made lights draw them off course.
Because of the interdependent nature of ecosystems even small changes have wide ranging consequences.
Blue light has also been shown to be more light polluting than warm light. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light, and its rays are more easily scattered – this leads to increased skyglow, brighter night skies and less visible stars.
To minimise the negative effects of lighting, consider using things like motion sensors and dimmers. For instance, these can be used along walkways and cycle paths to create dark corridors, areas that can be illuminated for use and then return to darkness.
Other technologies to limit light pollution include seasonal lighting – lighting that changes with the fluctuating needs of wildlife, light shields, timers, and warm colour temperature lighting.
Energy Efficiency
In the modern world people are doing everything in their power to lower carbon emissions.
There are several strategies that can be incorporated to make outdoor lighting schemes as energy-efficient as possible:
Daylight harvesting is a lighting method that conserves energy by varying light intensity in relation to the amount of daylight available. As daylight decreases the lights become stronger, saving energy by only emitting as much light as needed.
Additionally, solar powered lighting has become increasingly viable for outdoor lighting, especially in areas where connection to the main grid would prove challenging. By integrating solar energy into outdoor lighting schemes they become fully self charging and renewable.
It’s important to equip luminaires with energy efficient LEDs. An efficient bulb with a low wattage will consume far less energy than a high wattage alternative.
DarkSky friendly lighting directs beam angles and limits light spill, ensuring energy-efficient illumination. These luminaires focus light only where it’s needed, for instance illuminating a path, while leaving the surrounding area in darkness, conserving energy by eliminating wasted light.
A common theme with good lighting practice is lighting only when necessary, for the shortest time possible. Motion sensors and timers allow for energy savings, by activating lights when needed for navigation and movement, before returning to darkness.
Many local authorities in the UK have started experimenting with “part-night” lighting on quiet residential streets, where street lights are switched off or dimmed after midnight, and turned on in the early hours of the morning.
Longevity and maintenance
Durable fixtures with appropriate impact (IK) and ingress protection (IP) ratings for the required setting will prevent unnecessary waste from breakages and repairs, and avoid repair costs.
Thermal management extends the lifespan of luminaires. Cooling mechanisms and heat sinks can prevent overheating and promote heat dissipation.
Outdoor environments are at risk of power surges and electrical faults. Use of a surge protector protects sensitive components and prevents lighting systems from becoming damaged.
Advanced Lighting controls
Modern lighting controls allow designers and planners flexibility to customise lighting schemes depending on their needs.
Products like DALI, Zigbee and Zhaga compliant control interfaces facilitate integration with the IoT and smart city technologies, like weather and traffic sensors, allowing for real time responsiveness.
These systems enable flexible adjustments from a centralised location. You can set schedules, alter brightness levels, as well as create dynamic lighting effects. They can be used to implement seasonal lighting themes and adjust the ambience and aesthetics of a space.
Using RGB or RGBW LEDs , lighting designers can create dynamic, vibrant and customisable colour schemes.
Zhaga compliance ensures that lighting systems are interoperable, that parts are easily repaired and replaced, and urban lighting regulations are followed.
Conclusion
Effective outdoor lighting requires carefully balancing functionality, aesthetics, and environmental consideration. By balancing elements like colour temperature and luminous output through incorporation of modern lighting technologies, and smart controls, you can illuminate spaces in ways that are both visually appealing and personal, yet sustainable, and fit for purpose.
Part of a series on outdoor lighting:
Are LEDs the answer to environmentally friendly lighting?