By: Dr. Julle Oksanen, PhD.
ISBN: 978-0-88839-786-7 [Trade Paperback]
ISBN: 978-0-88839-787-4 [eBook]
Binding: Trade Paper
Size: 6" X 9"
Pages: 272
Illustrations/Photos: 92
Publication Date: Summer 2024

Sample Frontmatter and Table of Contents

Darkness, Design, and Biodiversity examines the overlooked crisis of light pollution, advocating for the protection of our planet’s natural night. It offers a critical examination of how modern lighting practices harm biodiversity and introduces innovative solutions for creating protective darkness. Through three core paradigms, the book addresses the causes and solutions of light pollution, presents technical outdoor lighting strategies, and explores the design of nocturnal spaces.

Aimed at a broad audience, from students across various disciplines to laypeople and professionals, it serves as both an informative resource and a call to action. By combining insights from ecology, architecture, engineering, and more, this concise work encourages readers to contribute to preserving nature’s diversity by rethinking our approach to artificial lighting and darkness.

Julle Oksanen and architect Professor Dr. Hannu Tikka are part of Group X, a focus group at the Department of Architecture at Aalto University. They form a “Light & Space Academy,” part of the Finnish Mobile University, arranging traveling educational activities in the USA, Asia and Europe. Julle Oksanen graduated with a PhD from the Department of Architecture, Aalto University. He researches the relationship between light pollution, Darkness Design, architecture and biodiversity.

Before his work in Darkness Design, he spent more than 30 years as a lighting and fixture designer, and his company, Julle Oksanen Lighting Design Ltd., has carried out diverse projects that included a cathedral, amphitheater, airport, city centers, office buildings, etc., in the United States, Europe and Asia. He has also designed luminaires for international manufacturers, both custom and for standard production. In addition to his PhD from Aalto University, he has a Master of Science degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design. He is also a Professional Engineer (electricity) as a graduate of Helsinki Technical College. He has held visiting professorships and other academic positions at universities in London, New York, Ithaca, Philadelphia, Oregon, Tennessee and Norway. He has lectured at important Lightfairs in New York and Las Vegas and in over 20 universities around the world.

His dissertation “Design Concepts in Architectural Outdoor Lighting Design, Based on Metaphors as a Heuristic Tool” has been honored as the best final thesis in the field.

— Daniel Klem, Jr., Ph.D., D.Sc. Professor of Ornithology and Conservation Biology, Muhlenberg College USA