Balanced Brightness Levels: Exploring human sensory experience of lighting and darkness in urban public contexts

Abstract

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Socially inclusive Lighting Design: exploring a method to enhance freedom of movement for marginalised groups.

“…Like the findings from other studies confirm [46]- [48], having the nearby surroundings lit enhances the perceived safety. Further, as Mette Hvass shows in her doctoral dissertation, [49], the surroundings will become more visible by lowering and balancing the general lighting levels. This method will allow 'room' for other subtle light layers to make a lighting hierarchy.…”

“…Other methods, such as lighting walks or walk-along interviews where participants took pictures, like the methods used by Mette Hvass in her doctoral dissertation. [49] , could have resulted in different outcomes. Some things might be easy to change, but it is impossible to change a place's spatial design with lighting design, nor to change social diversity.…”

Darker Cities due to the Energy Crisis and the need for context-specific urban lighting

“…Lighting and darkness need to be balanced between lit zones [10]; when a general balanced layer of light is established, other layers of lighting can be added in a lighting hierarchy. To make the lighting hierarchy function optimally, it must be developed based on context-specific needs and spatial and social qualities [21].…”

Intensity and ratios of light affecting perception of space, co-presence and surrounding context, a lab experiment

“…assessed in a lab setting [10,23,36,37] through the use of models or visual fields in models [8,13,18,19,21,25] or simulations [29,31], in a field study / real-site tests [8,9,16,22,24] or by arranging tours with test participants to visit existing lit spaces, to evaluate the lighting [38]. For this study, we choose to set up a lab experiment to explore the findings from the preliminary field study [3] and to be able to manipulate intensity levels and ratios between light levels in two defined light zones in a controlled environment. In the lab, we were able to isolate the experience of the lighting scenarios and direct the test participants to focus on how their perception of the light in the two light zones affected them.…”

“…The study builds on a preliminary field study we conducted at two tram stations in Aarhus, Denmark to study the perceived qualities of light intensity in a complex context. The tram station study consisted of observations documented in a series of photos and short semi-structured interviews [3]. The study indicated that a high-intensity lighting can create a tense atmosphere and cause glare, making other travelers appear pale and the surrounding areas appear dark and difficult to perceive due to contrast.…”