Emotions and the Urban Lighting Environment

Abstract

This article shows the main results of an empirical research about the relation between emotions and urban lighting scenarios. The focus is on the emotions experienced by participants in outdoor public spaces, such as pedestrian areas, parks, and other spaces. To understand subjects’ emotions, we followed a procedure of surveys using situation–response questionnaires in a closed, controlled environment with participants ( N = 217) belonging to three universities of different countries: the University of Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico; Polytechnic University of Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain; and Via Domitian University in Perpignan, France. The set of 10 frequent emotions related to urban lighting mentioned by Calvillo Cortés was used for the study. Cross-cultural comparison of answers about the emotions felt by participants allowed us to classify the emotions in two types: the emotions commonly perceived among the three groups and the emotions particularly perceived by each group attributable to their cultural background. Based on that, we present conclusions about the relation between the emotions and the lighting parameters of the scene. In addition, we present a theoretical exploration of other researches related to subjective approaches on lighting, pointing out that emotions are not as widely studied as other psychological responses to lit places. This requires further conceptualization of the theoretical framework to increase the focus on the importance of emotions in the design of urban lighting spaces, providing more pleasant and healthy user experience.