For the Healthy City Design: Are We Designing for Utopia or Dystopia? conference, Joana Mendo and Leni Schwendinger presented to an attentive audience of public health, built environment and arts academics and professionals in London, in winter 2019.

Are cities serving their citizens when night travels are considered unsafe?

How can public space usage, crucial to health during the day, be improved at night?

For those working the night shift, is it safe to traverse during these hours?

Current research on city nights can be defined in three areas:

• nighttime economy, with focus on entertainment, citizens’ behaviours, urban policy and cultural planning;
• events and festivals, which increase cultural offerings and tourism; and
• lighting masterplans, by city membership organisations and planning practitioners, setting standards.

These areas have two cross-cutting trends: concern about energy efficiency and improvement in lighting technologies. Nighttime design diverges in that it’s inclusive of all these dimensions.

You are invited to view the presentation video to learn more about this new interdisciplinary field of study.

Link to Healthy City Design 2019: Nighttime Design Video and Downloadable Presentation 

###

SALUS and NTD are collaborative partners,

Leni Schwendinger is advising on HCD 2020