Lighting design

Arup is a leading lighting design and advisory practice, and the creative team behind the illumination of many of the world’s most beautiful and beloved buildings. We are artists and designers, engineers and consultants, your creative partners on projects of every kind and scale.

We take a 24-hour approach to designing with light, producing beautiful and sustainable designs at any scale or in any context. How we experience and interact with light is central to our creative process. Whether it working on an interior space or exterior, our lighting designers and advisors integrate both daylight and architectural lighting in harmony.   

How we work with you

From initial strategic advice and concept development all the way through to construction documents and on-site support, we offer unparalleled creativity backed by the technical excellence and experience for which we are renowned. Our team are experts in daylight design, light and wellbeing, fixture design, brand identity and lighting engineering. 

Digital brilliance

Every day, digital tools sharpen our lighting design practices, enabling us to offer new levels of insight to clients. They enable us to map lighting effects at the city level, using sensors and machine learning. For Delta Airlines we created a tool to analyse lighting use in order to optimise occupancy across its many terminals, a great example of how lighting impacts occupant comfort and can drive improved business performance.  

Our Luminaire Broker web service offers a supplier network service that matches lighting projects to the most relevant manufacturers and services, helping clients to take advantage of the best materials, craft and technology to realise their designs. 

Sustainable lighting

Lighting is a major factor in operational energy in sustainable and regenerative development. We are driving down energy use through highly sustainable lighting design and lead the way on circular processes. For Columbia University’s Manhattanville campus we’re developing a 20 year lighting plan, embedding sustainable choices that will endure throughout the vital transition to net zero emissions. 

We’re also pioneering new approaches like circular design principles, to increase the design-for-reuse and recycling in large scale lighting projects. And we’re assisting our clients in adopting circular design, providing flexible specifications that let them source the lowest energy, most recyclable solutions across a building or asset’s entire lifecycle.  

A healthy experience

In an increasingly 24-hour world, with lifestyles and work behaviours changing, lighting plays a key role in human wellbeing. That’s why interior and exterior lighting are increasingly being designed with human circadian rhythms in mind. Our own circadian lighting recommendations are based on internal research as well external guides like the WELL Building Standard. Together these enable us to design lighting systems that are both beautiful and healthy, setting realistic expectations while complying with stringent energy codes. We have even consulted on healthy lighting systems for a potential human colony on Mars. 

Discover our work

With the potential to change how we perceive architecture and public space, our lighting teams across the globe are experts in designing with smart envelopes, LED lighting equipment and media façades. Our current project base highlights a number of world-class examples of the application of Arup’s trademark innovation.