The park after dark: Stretching the use of urban spaces

This idea is rooted as much in lived experience as in urban policy: children need regular, safe access to public space for health and development, but too often our cities fail to provide that after dark.

UNICEF underscores the importance of outdoor play, recommending young children spend at least three hours outdoors a day, a challenge for most working families.

According to the 2023 Safer Cities Survey by Transport for NSW, nearly 59 percent of women report feeling unsafe in public spaces after dark, compared with only 32 percent of men. Research from Monash University’s XYX Lab, working with the crowd-mapping initiative YourGround NSW, shows how these perceptions of danger influence women’s movements, shaping decisions about when, where and whether they go out at all. At the same time, densification in our cities is increasing competition for limited shared spaces.

These issues, which relate to safety, health and access, are not isolated. Together they raise a crucial question: how do we design public space to reflect the full range of how people actually live, rather than how we assume they want to?
There are practical considerations too. The ecological impacts of lighting and activity at night; the cost of maintaining and managing public spaces beyond daylight hours; and the NIMBY effect of neighbours who may not be welcoming to these changes.

At ASPECT Studios, we work across diverse geographical contexts, from the Middle East to East Asia, and we see firsthand how environmental, social, and cultural conditions shape the rhythms of public space. What works in Riyadh or Shanghai won’t translate directly to Sydney or Melbourne - and that’s precisely why design matters. Cities are not accidents - they are built by design. And they can be reimagined.

The idea I’m proposing is simple: urban parks should be designed not just for daytime use, but for life after dark. That means being creative - about lighting, programming, and governance. It means working with communities, not against them. And it means recognising that access, equity, and joy in public space shouldn’t disappear with the sun.

Our cities have a huge amount to gain from embracing the idea of a night-time park.

For one, extending the temporal reach of our parks, keeping them open later or even around the clock, allows us to dramatically increase access to open space without building any more of them. In dense urban environments, where land is increasingly scarce and costly, that’s a profound opportunity. For resource-constrained local governments, it’s also a cost-effective way to do more with what we already have.

Encouragingly, this is not a new idea. Versions of the night-time urban park already exist across many cultures and regions. Internationally, necessity has long shaped a culture of after-hours park use. In parts of the Middle East, for example, intense daytime heat makes dusk and evening the most comfortable time to be outside. As Rowan D’Arcy, Studio Director of our MENA studio notes, streets, promenades, parks and even cycle tracks become livelier after dark, sometimes with more activity at 10pm than at 10am.

Lighting plays a big role, but so do shade, materials, access to parking and proximity to dense residential areas. Well-designed microclimates support this evening rhythm, and cultural practices, such as night-time gatherings during Ramadan, help sustain it. The result is a public realm where evening use is normal rather than exceptional. Design and governance work together: strong illumination, high amenity and a sense of safety make night activity feel not only possible but routine.

This highlights an important point: this concept is not just about lighting, or about disrupting the natural systems that are hard at work once the sun goes down. It is about thinking about the park after dark as a totality and using design to surface the most useful elements.