About
De-lighting Urban Night Skies: Darkness as a Biocultural Right
Artificial light at night is rapidly erasing urban darkness and night skies, creating ecological and cultural challenges. Excessive lighting disrupts nocturnal wildlife, affects human and non-human circadian rhythms, and reduces opportunities for people to connect with the night sky.
This project reframes darkness as both:
- A biological necessity
- A bio-cultural right
- A design and planning challenge
Through interdisciplinary collaboration, we explore how cities can recognise, protect, and create urban night environments that support biodiversity, health, and cultural meaning.
Why Darkness Matters
Darkness is not the absence of light, it is a vital environmental and cultural condition.
Loss of darkness can:
- Disrupt nocturnal habitats
- Disorient animals
- Contribute to human health issues
- Reduce cultural connections to the cosmos
Reintroducing darkness into cities offers new possibilities for sustainable and inclusive urban design.
Research Approach
This project uses a biocultural and multispecies justice framework, recognising that cities are shared environments between humans and other species.
Our methods include:
Mapping Urban Darkness and Night Skies
Identifying dark refuges, light-polluted areas, and access to night skies across Melbourne from a biocultural rights approach.
Participatory Workshops
Community-based events that include:
- Storytelling
- Multispecies mapping
- Walking and listening activities
- Reflecting on relationships with night
Story Mapping
Creating visual 'Dark Multispecies Story Maps' that capture lived experiences of nighttime environments.
We hope these approaches will help people reconnect with our night skies and darkness and reconsider how cities are designed after sunset.
Get Involved
We welcome: community members, researchers, designers, local councils, environmental groups and anyone interested in this topic.
Ways to participate:
- Join workshops
- Share nighttime stories
- Collaborate on mapping
- Attend project events
Contact
Dr Melissa Pineda Pinto
Melbourne Centre for Cities
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
The University of Melbourne
Project Team
Dr Melissa Pineda Pinto, Maddison Miller, Dr Judy Bush, A/Prof Amy Hahs, Prof Therésa Jone, Dr Dave Kendal and Sarah Medcalf.