At OBS Lighting Consultants, we don’t just design lighting for interiors, we consider its role across the built environment. From public spaces and façades to courtyards and communal areas, light is one of the most powerful, yet often overlooked tools in shaping how we navigate, understand, and feel within the spaces we inhabit.
This edition of the OBServe Series explores how lighting in the built environment must do more than illuminate, it must support wellbeing, reflect context, and act responsibly in the broader ecosystem of architecture, nature, and community.
Lighting as Urban Language
Lighting in the built environment communicates.
It tells us where to go, where to pause, what to notice, and when to feel safe. In plazas, streetscapes, public entrances and courtyards, lighting reinforces the rhythm of a place, helping spaces transition from day to night without losing their identity.
Well-designed exterior lighting is never incidental. It works in tandem with materials, massing and movement, guiding people intuitively without overwhelming or overexposing.
At OBS, we frequently collaborate with architects and master planners to ensure that light supports spatial intent, whether that means subtly revealing texture on a brick façade or gently drawing people into a landscaped park.
The Cost of Over Lighting | Ecological and Economic
In the global push to build smarter cities and greener developments, lighting must be part of the sustainability conversation.
Yet we still face startling statistics:
- $50 billion is lost globally every year due to light escaping into the sky, energy paid for but never used.
- Excessive or misdirected lighting contributes to light pollution, which disrupts sleep cycles, damages ecosystems, and blurs the natural day-night rhythm.
- Façade lighting, car parks, pathways and communal areas are often over-illuminated or left running unnecessarily, wasting energy and eroding the ambience of night-time environments.
Good design mitigates this. It uses shielded luminaires, precise beam control, and context-sensitive intensity to provide just enough light, no more, no less.
Human-Centric Thinking Beyond Four Walls
We often speak about circadian lighting inside buildings, but what about the spaces in between?
Outdoor lighting still plays a critical role in regulating our sense of time, safety, orientation and comfort. Poorly lit streets or overexposed courtyards can cause anxiety or overstimulation. In residential masterplans, communal areas that glow with harsh white light feel clinical and unnatural, a missed opportunity to support relaxation, reflection or casual interaction.
Instead, lighting should reflect the emotional tone of the environment:
- Warm, low-level light in residential courtyards promotes calm and privacy.
- Softer transitions between lit and unlit zones preserve our night vision and avoid visual glare.
- Thoughtful contrast between light and shadow enhances spatial legibility without flattening detail.
Integrated, Not Added On
Lighting should be considered as early as possible in the design process, not retrofitted at the end. When lighting is integrated from concept stage, it becomes a natural extension of architecture, landscape, and materiality.
At OBS, our work in the built environment often begins with the question: “What does this space want to feel like at night?” From there, we design lighting schemes that are adaptive, contextual, and quietly powerful, bringing architecture to life without dominating it.