Research indicates that as global development progresses, animals are increasingly becoming nocturnal. Animals that once divided their time equally between day and night now spend approximately 70% of their time active at night. The impact of light pollution at night leads to habitat fragmentation, degradation, and reduced biodiversity, creating a crisis for urban wildlife, including nocturnal pollinators around the world.

The escalation of light pollution and its impact on urban wildlife underscores the necessity for urban rewilding, and in particular, enhancing nocturnal habitats. Design professionals, including landscape architects, lighting designers, and urban planners, can address this issue by intentionally preserving or strategically reintroducing darkness into the built environment. This approach aims to restore ecological balance, protect biodiversity, and promote healthier coexistence between humans and wildlife, particularly nocturnal pollinators.

This report explores how urban environments, often not perceived as natural, can be transformed by designers to improve nocturnal habitats. By reviewing existing studies and delving into the diverse range of nocturnal pollinators, the report offers a toolkit for designing nocturnal habitats and presents a local case study that can be scaled up for broader application.