9-13 November 2026
Celebrate daylight with us!
Daylight is far more than a source of illumination. It is a force that shapes life on Earth, influencing our health, our culture, our built environment, and the natural systems which we depend on. Yet despite its fundamental role in our daily lives, daylight’s wider effects often go unnoticed.
This year’s Daylight Awareness Week invites you on a journey where we explore some of the many ways through which daylight impacts our world.
From architecture and health to biology, solar energy, and culture, each day of the week will focus on a different theme, with new content and events released throughout the programme. We invite you to join the conversation by exploring our resources, attending events, and sharing your own insights and experiences.
Through documentaries, workshops, webinars, articles, and discussions, we will examine how natural light influences human well-being, the spaces we inhabit, the living world around us, and the technologies helping build a more sustainable future.
Help us spread awareness of the importance of daylight by sharing relevant content on social media and using #DaylightWeek and #DLAW2026. Together, let’s highlight the many ways through which daylight shapes our world and inspire others to see it in a new light.
Register now for our live webinars and join us throughout the week for the premiere of our new documentary series.
With Katharina Wulff, Umea University, SEMH Support Specialist Heather Lucas and Jo Clanfield, founder of Teach Outdoors. Moderated by Jemima Unwin Teji, UCL IEDE and Aicha Diakite-Kortlever, TU Berlin.
Click on each day to explore the programme and access additional resources.
Illustrations by Marina Roa Visual Thinking from SenseTribe Consulting.
WORKSHOPS AT BERLIN SCIENCE WEEK
Discover the wonders of daylight at two family-friendly workshops hosted by our partners at Berlin Science Week. Learn more below.
Workshop by Aicha Diakité-Kortlever, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, and Jemima Unwin Teji, University College London, United Kingdom
A Bright Start in the Science of Light: A Light & Color Workshop for Kids
Did you know that daylight has superpowers? This interactive workshop invites children and their families to explore the fascinating world of light through hands-on experiments, creative activities, and playful discovery. Participants will learn how daylight shapes our everyday lives while investigating colour, rainbows, and the many properties of light. Designed for children aged 4-8 and their accompanying adults, the workshop encourages curiosity, creativity, and a deeper understanding of the natural world.
Further information and registration.
The workshop is organised by the co-leads of the DLA Project “Bright Start: Daylight Exposure Advantages in the Early Years“.
Workshop by Aicha Diakité-Kortlever, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, and Jemima Unwin Teji, University College London, United Kingdom
A Bright Start in the Science of Light: A Light & Color Workshop for Kids
Did you know that daylight has superpowers? This interactive workshop invites children and their families to explore the fascinating world of light through hands-on experiments, creative activities, and playful discovery. Participants will learn how daylight shapes our everyday lives while investigating colour, rainbows, and the many properties of light. Designed for children aged 4-8 and their accompanying adults, the workshop encourages curiosity, creativity, and a deeper understanding of the natural world.
Further information and registration.
The workshop is organised by the co-leads of the DLA Project “Bright Start: Daylight Exposure Advantages in the Early Years“.
DAYLIGHT IN ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Daylight has been used as both an aesthetic and utilitarian tool in architecture since the beginnings of human history. Modern technology allows us to further expand on this developed practice, opening up new horizons in how we both use and appreciate daylight.
Join us on a journey spanning continents as we visit some of the people who work with daylight in art and architecture.
We also look into new research on daylight’s role in the built environment and host a panel of experts seeking to advance the benefits of daylight for kids.
How does daylight shape the spaces we inhabit and the art we create? This documentary examines the role of natural light in art and architecture, showing how it has inspired creative expression and shaped our experience of the built environment.
Join us live for the documentary’s public premiere.
Our Speakers:
Katharina Wulff – Associate professor at the Department of Molecular Biology at the Umea University
Heather Lucas – (SEMH) Support Specialist
Jo Clanfield – Founder & Managing Director of Teach Outdoors
Moderation by:
Jemima Unwin Teji – Associate Professor in Lighting and the Built Environment in the UCL Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering
Aicha Diakite-Kortlever – Lecturer at the HTW University of Applied Sciences Berlin and Guest Researcher at the TU Berlin
The webinar is organised by the co-leads of the DLA Project “Bright Start: Daylight Exposure Advantages in the Early Years“.
Check back on this day for new blog posts and insights.
Architect Dorte Mandrup and plant ecologist Peter Edwards discuss the relationship between daylight, urban density, human wellbeing and ecological health in this episode of our Daylight Conversations series.
Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto are founders of the acclaimed Japanese architectural practice Atelier Bow-Wow and received The Daylight Award 2026 for Daylight in Architecture.
It their portrait film and subsequent lecture at The Daylight Award 2026 ceremony, they reflect on their architectural approach and the role of daylight in shaping spaces, experiences, and connections between people and their surroundings.
DAYLIGHT IN HUMANS AND HEALTH
Daylight has been a vital driver of evolution since the Archean Eon some 3 billion years ago. The study of chronobiology has opened our understanding to light’s role in our lives that goes beyond photosynthesis and reveals its importance for our sleep, mood and health more broadly.
Our journey to better understand daylight’s role in our health takes us from an unlikely greenhouse in the snow covered planes of the arctic to the jungles of Guatemala where we uncover the value of old Mayan wisdom for modern medicine.
We will also be hosting a live online discussion with the author of an exciting new book that explores the relationship between sunlight and health.
How does daylight influence our health and wellbeing? This documentary explores the vital role of natural light in human life.
Join us live for the documentary’s public premiere.
Is sunlight friend or foe? Join us for a special book talk with Rowan Jacobsen, acclaimed science writer and author of “In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure”. In conversation with Professor Richard Weller, a leading researcher on the health benefits of sunlight, Jacobsen will explore the evolving science behind sun exposure and share insights from his new book. Together, they will discuss what the latest research reveals about daylight, health, and well-being, and why sunlight may be more important than we think.
Our speakers:
Rowan Jacobsen is a longtime science writer and a former Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT. He has written about light and health for Mother Jones, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Guardian, Scientific American, and other publications. His new book is In Defense of Sunlight: The Surprising Science of Sun Exposure.
Richard Weller is Professor of Medical Dermatology at the University of Edinburgh. His research focusses on the beneficial effects of sunlight exposure on health.
Check back on this day for new blog posts and insights.
Learn more about how people interact with daylight in everyday life and how this is shaped by factors such as location, built environments, culture and behaviour in this Light O’Clock podcast series with the co-leads of the DLA’s Daylight Interactions project.
Episode 1: Geolocation (Spotify, Apple Podcasts)
Episode 2: Culture & Behaviour (Spotify, Apple Podcasts)
Episode 3: Built environment (Spotify, Apple Podcasts)
In this episode of Daylight Conversations, Medical Anthropologist Mónica Berger González and Neuroscientist Manuel Spitschan explore the role of daylight in health – from a global, nature-oriented perspective. Their dialogue highlights the richness and potential of collaboration across disciplines and cultures.
Watch Prof. Michael Heinrich talk about the opportunities for combining traditional medicines with photodynamic therapy. The presentation was given at the DLA Annual Conference 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Watch Prof. Richard Weller speak about his research into the relationship between sunlight and health.
The presentation was given at the DLA Annual Conference 2025 in Garching near Munich, Germany.
Watch Dr Mónica Berger González talk about her research in Guatemala and the insights she has gained on intercultural transdisciplinary approaches to foster societal transformations.
The presentation was given at the DLA Annual Conference 2025 in Garching near Munich, Germany.
DAYLIGHT IN BIOLOGY
Animals and plants need daylight too. Indeed, it is the building block for much of the life on our planet.
Focusing on the biological effects of daylight, we explore how forest ecosystems can flourish or die, depending on how exposed they are to the sun. Meanwhile, to understand daylight’s impact under water, we visit a cutting-edge floating research laboratory installed on Lake Geneva.
We also look into the exciting new research that seeks to harness photo-biology for crop protection.
How does daylight influence life on Earth? This documentary examines the role of natural light in biological processes, showing how it guides life across ecosystems.
Join us live for the documentary’s public premiere.
Check back on this day for new blog posts and insights.
Prof. Steven W. Wilhelm, Prof. R. Michael McKay and Ass. Prof. Brittany N. Zepernick are the laureates of The Daylight Award 2026 for Daylight Research.
Their portrait film and lecture reveal more about their pioneering research on aquatic microorganisms in the Great Lakes, which has helped advance our understanding of the complex relationships between microorganisms, sunlight, and ecosystem processes.
In this inspiration talk, Prof. Nathaniel J. Dominy looks closer at the connections between daylight, vision and human evolution.
The presentation was given at the DLA Annual Conference 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In this keynote speech, Dr Barbara Mizumo Tomotani talks about the discoveries made by her team in arctic chronobiology and physiology.
The presentation was given at the DLA Annual Conference 2026 in Garching near Munich, Germany.
DAYLIGHT IN ENERGY
Daylight is the most fundamental and undervalued renewable resource we have – it is free and abundant.
On this day we look into the cutting-edge research that is allowing us to harness the power of daylight in facades, dams and even pieces of art.
How does daylight power the modern world? This documentary examines the role of sunlight as a source of renewable energy, showing how solar technologies are transforming the way we generate and use power.
Join us live for the documentary’s public premiere.
Check back on this day for new blog posts and insights.
The idea of harnessing the Sun’s rays for energy is older than you may think…
SUN 1913
DAYLIGHT ACROSS CULTURES
On Friday the 13th we take a look at daylight’s role across cultures with a special eerie twist.
Find out why pissing in front of the Sun was considered a no-go at one point in time and discover our star’s role in the unfortunate fate of a German coconut colony in the Pacific.
Last but not least, we will also seek to understand why Ancient Egyptians thought baboons were onto something in their attitudes towards the sun disc.
Magic, Religion, and Folklore: Daylight in Historical Cultures
The sun has long occupied a special place in human culture, shaping the ways people have understood themselves and the world around them. From everyday superstitions and religious beliefs to ideas about health and longevity, sunlight has inspired a rich range of cultural practices and ways of thinking. This webinar explores the historical significance of daylight through two fascinating perspectives, revealing how the sun has influenced societies across different periods and places. Spanning classical antiquity, the Renaissance, and the early twentieth century, the talks offer insights into the many meanings attributed to daylight and its lasting influence on human culture.
Dr Sophie Battell, Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature, Durham University
“Don’t Piss Before the Sun”: Daylight Superstitions in Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance
Sophie Battell is Teaching Fellow in Early Modern Literature at Durham University. She received her PhD from Cardiff University and has also taught at the Universities of Exeter and Zurich. She is the author of On the Threshold: Hospitality in Shakespeare’s Drama (2023). Her current project is on the literary and cultural significance of the sun in early modern England.
Dr Aidan Tynan, Reader in English Literature, Cardiff University
Living on Light: A German Coconut Colony and the Pursuit of Immortality in the Early Twentieth-Century South Seas
Aidan Tynan is Reader in English Literature at Cardiff University. His interdisciplinary research spans literary studies, continental philosophy, and critical theory, with recent work focusing on ecocriticism and the environmental humanities. He is the author of The Desert in Modern Literature and Philosophy: Wasteland Aesthetics (Edinburgh University Press, 2020). His forthcoming monograph, Ecofascist Cultures: The Far Right and the Environmental Imagination, will be published by Bloomsbury Academic.
Check back on this day for new blog posts and insights.
Use #DaylightWeek & #DLAW26 to join the global conversation!