Lighting guidelines

Introduction to lighting

The lighting guidelines provide guidance and interpretation to the Australian/New Zealand standards to improve the visual appeal for the city. This will facilitate sympathetic lighting for landscapes, buildings, and features.

If used correctly these guidelines will help to ensure that:

Auckland's lighting will have low glare and good visibility.
Lighting decisions and equipment will support environmental 'best practice'.
Staff and contractors will have the tools to make safe and economic lighting decisions.
There is numerical and prescriptive compliance with the New Zealand exterior lighting standards for roads and footpaths. This compliance however should not determine decisions about how the image of the city is projected in terms of visual appeal.
All lighting applications will provide an ambience that supports the impression of quality and prosperity within the city.

Areas covered in the guidelines

The lighting guidelines provide information about lighting applications:

Lighting for vehicles and roads.
Lighting for pedestrians.
Lighting in public places and open spaces.
Lighting for new subdivisions and developments.
Lighting for cycle-ways.
Lighting of heritage buildings, gateways and monuments.
Lighting in car parks.
Lighting in toilets.
Lighting of pedestrian linkages.

Code and rules

The salient street lighting standard is AS/NZS 1158. There are other standards that apply to exterior lighting and they are discussed in the lighting specification section.

Environmental compliance

Night sky pollution is a growing environmental problem that threatens to erase the night sky (more than half of the world's population can no longer see the milky way).

This wasted light does nothing to improve safety, security or amenity at night:

Night sky pollution above Auckland city from
Mt Eden

Glossary

Definitions of the technical terms used in these guidelines.

Published December 2008