What is nocturnal design and why does it matter?

We spend almost half our lives in the dark, yet nearly everything we design is built for the day. When night falls, most cities reach for the same answer: more light. But what if we designed our cities to embrace the night, rather than fighting with floodlights?
Emrah Baki Ulas and Vera Xia bring together lighting design and urban studies to make the case for nocturnal design: cities and spaces that work with the night rather than against it. Think Vivid, which changed the way Sydney experienced itself after sunset, and asked how the night can bring a city together.

Bios

Emrah Baki Ulas

Emrah Baki Ulas is an internationally recognised lighting designer who bridges professional practice and academic research as an associate professor at the University of Sydney and Technical Director at Steensen Varming. He has worked on cultural, civic and urban projects across the globe, collaborating with architects and planners on spaces that explore how light shapes human experience. He is a coveted speaker at international conferences on the future of light, and the kind of person who has thought about how your city looks at midnight a lot more than you have.

Vera Xia

Vera Xia is a Lecturer in Design and Urban Technologies at the University of Sydney, where she studies how technology and design shape everyday life in cities. Her research examines spaces like light festivals to understand when they genuinely bring people together and when they don't. She brings an urban studies perspective to nocturnal design, thinking carefully about how light and darkness shape who feels welcome in a city after dark, and who doesn't.

Event

Thursday 7 May, 8:00 – 8:45 PM @New Britannia, 103 Cleveland St, Darlington NSW 2008

The other talk at this location is …………………………………………………. at 6:30 – 7:15 PM