Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Protect our right to light

Skyscrapers in cities rob people of sunlight and put human health, well-being and sustainability at risk, warn Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska and Kyra Xavia.
  1. Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska

    1. Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska is a chartered architect and practising lighting designer, an assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Gdansk University of Technology (GUT), Poland, and co-founder of GUT Lightlab.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Kyra Xavia

    1. Kyra Xavia is a journalist and researcher at the Light and Lighting Research Consortium (LLRC) and a delegate of the International Dark-Sky Association.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

“The struggle for light” is how the Swiss architect Le Corbusier described the history of architecture in 1935. Today, with the skies crowded out by buildings in modern cities, those words should ring in the ears of policymakers and planners.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 568, 451-453 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01238-y

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 26 April 2019: An earlier version of this article did not accurately describe Taiwan and Hong Kong.

References

  1. Al-Kodmany, K. Buildings 8, 175 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Wai, K.-M., Yu, P. K. N. & Lam, K.-S. PLoS ONE 10, e0135562 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Boubekri, M. J. Human Environ. Syst. 7, 51–56 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Duhl, L. J. & Sanchez, A. K. Healthy Cities and the City Planning Process (WHO, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Zielinska-Dabkowska, K. M. Nature 533, 274–276 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lagrèze, W. A. & Schaeffel, F. Dtsch Arzebl Int. 114, 575–580 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Lam, C. S.-Y., Lam, C.-H., Cheng, S. C.-K. & Chan, L. Y.-L. Ophthalmic Physiol. Opt. 32, 17–24 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Rose, K. A. et al. Ophthalmology 115, 1279–1285 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Naeem, Z. Int. J. Health Sci. 4, V–VI (2010).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Walch, J. M. et al. Psychosom. Med. 67, 156–163 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Galasiu, A. D., Newsham, G. R., Suvagau, C. & Sander, D. M. Leukos 4, 7–29 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kjelgren, R. K. & Clark, J. R. Int. J. Biometeorol. 36, 165–171 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links