Many people are familiar with the idea of greening cities, which involves developing and enhancing urban green spaces. But what if we to start talking about darkening cities in a similar way?

Lancaster University Professor of Urban Design Nick Dunn says we would be able to reach important goals in relation to biodiversity, health and well-being of humans and nonhumans, and climate objectives.

Imagine a whole new world of effective shared living where we listen to our natural rhythms instead of fighting against them and we tackle light pollution so we can all see the stars at night.

Ditching urban lighting as we know it and designing buildings to be nocturnal, says Professor Dunn, will be beneficial for ourselves and the planet.

The founding director of Lancaster University’s Dark Design Laboratory, Professor Dunn says light, an often-uninvited by-product of our contemporary lives, is everywhere. Meanwhile darkness appears unwanted, but is essential to our wellbeing, other species, and our planet.


In ‘Dark Futures: When the Lights Go Down’, Professor Dunn, an architect, who also heads up Imagination, the University’s design and architecture research centre, presents a challenging new constraint-free way of thinking about the world in which we create more darkness than light.

“So, what might happen when the lights go down?” asks Professor Dunn. “And how bright should our future be?

“We dream in darkness. Yet light is everywhere, blazing its way through our lives and thoughts. Our world has more artificial light in it than ever before.

“When we consider what futures are possible, they tend to direct us to visions of either a shiny, frictionless world which is light and bright or, at the other end of the spectrum, they are fearsome, shadowy dystopias.

“We urgently need new ways to think of futures to save the planet, other species, and ourselves.”

Reclaiming darkness, says Professor Dunn, will enable ideas for an alternative future, which are neither environmentally catastrophic nor technologically evangelical.

This bold vision questions the outdated view of darkness something to be feared and designed against and, by doing so, proposes a reconnection of humans within the wider world – a true multispecies coexistence that is in tune with our body clocks and nature’s rhythms.

A balanced relationship with light and dark means, adds Professor Dunn, improved human health, flourishing biodiversity, and reduction in energy waste and pollution.

‘Dark Futures’ is part autobiography as it explains the author’s evolving relationship with darkness through childhood and beyond and part meditation on how we can rethink our ideas concerning the dark and, in turn, how this can transform our ecologies and technologies for the better.

“In an unprecedented era of climate emergency, we need to fundamentally rethink what we do, how we do it, and why,” adds Professor Dunn.

“Embracing darkness is about so much more than tackling light pollution. In fact, it runs through everything and is the key to reconnecting with the world around us.

“Common perception holds light and dark in opposition. Light is celebrated and synonymous with goodness, clarity, and wisdom. Darkness, meanwhile, appears unwanted, deep in its association with all that is dangerous, demonic, and oppressive.”

Professor Dunn says we are losing the night due to excessive artificial lighting. For centuries this was a terrestrial problem, but now fast-moving satellites can illuminate parts of the planet that were previously remote enough not be affected.

“As a result, our ancestral links with dark skies, relationships which lasted for millennia are all but extinguished with artificial stars due to replace those in the galaxy,” he says.

“Darkness is progressive. It signifies the very act of being alive as a species that depends on circadian rhythms for survival. Our ability to flourish depends entirely on rethinking our values and restoring our interrelationships with the planet and its other inhabitants. How might dark futures benefit people, places, and the planet?”

Dark Futures: When the Lights Go Down, is published on March 25 with the official launch in Manchester on April 10.

Nick Dunn is the founding Director of the Dark Design Lab, exploring the impacts of nocturnal activity on humans and non-humans. He is also an Ambassador for the Design Council and a Director of DarkSky UK.