Sector · Facade & Exterior
Facades, bridges, stations, stadia, streets and public squares — designed for legibility, safety and a responsible relationship to the night sky.
Our approach
Cities are read twice — once by day, once by night. The night-time city belongs in part to its lighting designers, and the responsibility is serious: legibility for the driver and pedestrian, safety for the resident, atmosphere for the visitor, and a duty of care toward darkness itself. Lichtvision has designed urban lighting for landmarks across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, from Berlin Central Station to the Baku Crystal Hall.
We design at every scale of the public realm — masterplan, street, square, facade, bridge, station and stadium — and we work alongside city authorities, transport operators, lighting manufacturers and conservation bodies. Our work is anchored in EN 13201 for road lighting, IES recommended practice, CIE guidance and DarkSky principles.
Lit facades shape the night identity of a city. We design from the urban view in: agreeing the role of each building in the skyline, then specifying optics that paint the architecture rather than uplight the sky. Every scheme is delivered with a control strategy — curfew, festival, baseline — so the building's night-time presence can adapt to civic rhythms.
Street and square lighting is the city's most public infrastructure. We design column locations, mounting heights, optics and colour temperatures to deliver safe, legible, low-glare environments — compliant with EN 13201 in Europe and equivalent standards elsewhere — while preserving the night-sky character of the place.
Large-scale infrastructure asks lighting to do two things at once: orient large numbers of people quickly, and feel humane while doing so. We design station concourses, platforms, stadium bowls and concourses with strict glare and uniformity control, broadcast-grade where required, and circulation lighting that respects late-night arrivals.
What we design
Architectural lighting compositions for civic and commercial landmarks.
EN 13201-compliant public realm with DarkSky-aligned night-sky responsibility.
Structural lighting that reads as architecture, not engineering signage.
Broadcast, circulation and atmospheric lighting for transport and sport venues.
Selected work
Frequently asked
Standards & references
Selected international guidance and professional bodies that inform our facade & exterior practice.
EN 13201 — Road lighting ↗
European norm we apply for streets and public realm.
DarkSky International ↗
Outdoor lighting principles we apply to facades and urban realms.
IALD — International Association of Lighting Designers ↗
Global professional association we contribute to.
CIE — International Commission on Illumination ↗
Photometric and colorimetric standards that underpin our calculations.
IES — Illuminating Engineering Society ↗
Recommended practice documents and TM-30 colour rendering metrics.
CIBSE — Lighting Guides (LG series) ↗
UK-recognised guides for offices, retail, museums and exteriors.
Start a conversation
We are happy to review a brief, visit a site, or sit down with your architect. Our studios in Berlin, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Barcelona cover most of the world within a day's flight.
