The City’s Collaborative Process on the Role of Light in Sustainable Urban Development

Building sustainable cities is about creating places that meet diverse needs – where people thrive, feel a sense of belonging and experience safety. Access to and participation in public spaces play a significant role in people’s well-being and life opportunities. Urban development addresses major societal challenges such as climate, value creation and social integration. It is a complex task involving competing interests and conflicting goals, requiring strong coordination and collaboration.

Sustainable urban development demands cooperation, new forms of partnership and innovative processes. It calls for increased knowledge, exploratory collaboration and research. Common obstacles in urban development processes include silo thinking that hinders holistic solutions, poor coordination, short-term project focus, increasing social and spatial segregation in cities, and insufficient dialogue. Cross-boundary and cross-sectoral collaboration involving citizens, civil society, and businesses is needed. Moreover, process-based knowledge and the development of new forms of collaboration are essential for the sustainable development of our cities – principles that underpin EU initiatives such as the New European Bauhaus and Sweden’s national policy for Designed Living Environment (Gestaltad livsmiljö).

The Role of Light in Sustainable Urban Development

The dark hours of the day and year make up a substantial part of life in Northern Europe and light plays a crucial role in how we move, behave and interact. Light shapes the built environment and is a key factor in areas such as social inclusion, climate impact, energy efficiency and biodiversity. Light travels without borders and reflects urban development as a whole – demanding that we reach across disciplinary boundaries to meet complex challenges together. Urban lighting plays a significant role and can be used as tool in building sustainable cities, where collaborative processes are central.

The project explores how light can be integrated into urban planning, developing a multidisciplinary collaboration process for lighting. It raises the level of knowledge about light, tests and develops new methods and forms of cooperation, produces guiding documents for the city’s lighting and generates new research.

New Lighting Guidelines

The research project has contributed to the inclusion of lighting as part of Gothenburg’s comprehensive plan for Designed Living Environment. At the project’s conclusion in June 2023, the Urban Environment Administration launched new guidelines for urban lighting.

The guidelines are based on principles of sustainability and the specific conditions of place. They include support for building permits and collaborative processes, as well as concrete methods, checklists, and tools from planning to operation.

The new lighting guidelines have been developed jointly by a project group from several municipal departments, in dialogue with the business community and relevant authorities.

The guidelines target a wide audience within the city administrations and the private sector working with lighting, but also citizens interested in the potential and effects of lighting. The guidelines have been developed through the working group’s pilot projects and exploratory methods, conducted in parallel with regular operations.
The pilot projects include Gothenburg’s main street Kungsportsavenyn, the centrally located Brunnsparken, the historic Slakthusområdet in Gamlestaden, the development of Masthuggskajen and the areas around Frölunda Torg and Järnbrott.

The project contributes to a broader understanding of light and lighting as tools in the urban development process, creating frameworks and a shared “language” to facilitate communication between different stakeholders in the city.

The project is connected to the Traffic and Public Transport Authority’s participation in the EU-funded Interreg project LUCIA – Lighting the Baltic Sea Region, involving knowledge exchange and transfer of experience. The project also includes evaluation of Gothenburg’s long-term work with light and art in tunnels to increase safety and comfort — a programme that began through Gothenburg City’s international collaboration within the urban lighting network LUCI and Gothenburg City’s collaboration platform Trygg, vacker stad (Safe, Beautiful City).

The research is action research based. One practical outcome of the project is that lighting now is an integrated part of Gothenburg’s new comprehensive plan for designed living environments. Another result is the Urban Environment Administration’s policy document on lighting of public spaces and a methodological evaluation of the City of Gothenburg’s project Light and Art in Tunnels. Several practical outcomes are in production during 2025 within the scope of the project. 

About the Research Programme

The project is part of a long-term research programme that follows the City of Gothenburg’s urban development administrations. The programme focuses on collaboration and the material of light in sustainable urban development – through policy work, method development, light art interventions and innovation projects, including in Gothenburg’s Digital Twin, film production and workshop tools. 

Read more on Shedding Light on Living Environments.