Artificial lighting allows us to engage in nighttime activities along the waterfront that would be impossible or unsafe under normal nighttime conditions. Whether it is for allowing us to get from one point to another, security, or simply making a property more attractive at night, our enjoyment of the night will be enhanced by artificial lighting’s usage. At the same time, our lakes or beach at night provide a quiet open dark space that gives us privacy and the opportunity to enjoy the heavens. Imagine you are sitting on a dock during a crystal clear summer night, the water as flat as glass, the dark surface mirroring the sky, the stars shining brightly above, a falling star tracing a path across the heavens. Unfortunately, this precious part of our heritage is often obscured by the glare from a distant source of light across the water or by light trespass from a nearby property.

But it should not be this way. In most cases, making a few simple adjustments to existing lights will make them darker and sky-friendly and easily be able to solve the problem of light trespass that blinds us from our view of the night sky. The goal of sensitive waterfront lighting is to balance the ability to see at night with the desire to preserve the beauty of the night.

As lighting designer practitioners in Vietnam, our mission is to face multiple situations where lighting contexts are not considered carefully, such as the size and rate of lighting, human moving time, human vision, or the fixtures of lighting. Also, the fact is that much outdoor lighting used at night is inefficient, overly bright, poorly targeted, improperly shielded, and, in many cases, completely unnecessary. This light, and the electricity used to create it, is being wasted by spilling it into the sky, rather than focusing it on the actual objects and areas that people want to illuminate. Vietnam is facing increasing outdoor light pollution, according to local experts, and artificial light from coastal buildings affects coastal creatures, disrupts the World’s Ecosystems, and leads the baby sea turtles to their demise, birds and insects, in fact, a full ecosystem.