In northern Copenhagen, a new trademark for a local neighbourhood has arisen in the shape of a large light ring, almost six meters high. The iconic light circle has a circumference of about 80 meters and frames a new meeting point for the neighbouring young people and local citizens. The square has been transformed into an invit-ing multifunctional urban space with a football field and classic Copenhagen-style benches beneath a radiating circle of light.

The glowing circle is lit at 100 % power one hour before sunset when daylight still dominates. The light then dims gradually during twi-light in step with the increasing darkness. The light intensity drops to 25 % during civil twilight, to 5 % during nautical twilight until it glows with an intensity of 2 % during astronomical twilight. The glowing circle’s colour tones vary and adapt to match the changeable colours of twilight.

Thus, the light is programmed to match and follow the twilight period, which of course varies throughout the year. As one might expect, the lighting project has required a lot of professional thoughts and con-siderations. Our Project Director in Lighting Design, Merete Madsen, explains how it is particularly important to understand the physiology of the eye while considering the setting for the lighting design:

A varied landscape of light
Variation is an equally important instrument when designing indoor lighting. Especially, if we want the light to match people’s physiological needs.

Here, our natural circadian rhythm is an important factor because we need to create balance and cohesion between natural outside daylight and indoor lighting. The most important contribution of daylight is changeability as well as its life-giving quality. In the health sector, when people are bedridden, you often use lighting that continues to change throughout the day’s 24 hours which has proven to have positive health effects.

Our predilection for nature is an important source of inspiration. Research shows that we prefer warm white spotlights, while ceiling lights can be a cooler white. This is, roughly speaking, a direct simulation of sunlight and the blue sky. In contrast, if you set up completely homogenous lighting you have, more or less, simulated the equivalent to overcast weather. Another example of inspiration could be that most of us enjoy taking a walk through a forest where the light shines down through the leaves of the trees. This type of variation can be included in the lighting design.