John Winthers Square, Denmark

John Winthers Plads is a newly established public square behind City Hall in Frederiksberg, transforming a former parking lot into a warm, atmospheric and socially inviting urban space. The lighting design plays a defining role in shaping the square’s identity — creating a sense of safety and intimacy, and inviting a more sensory exploration of the winter darkness.

The design approach begins with restraint. Rather than flooding the site with uniform brightness, the lighting uses precision as its primary tool. Mast-mounted projectors illuminate selected corners and programmatic zones with narrow beams and carefully tuned angles, articulating the landscape and dividing the square into softly defined spatial fields. Honeycomb louvers ensure visual comfort and avoid harsh transitions, allowing darkness to remain an intentional part of the composition.

A key atmospheric gesture is the illumination of both existing and newly planted trees. Although lit from above, their highlighted canopies introduce a subtle vertical layer of light that creates an enveloping spatial quality, enhancing depth and intuitive orientation. With luminaires discreetly positioned among the branches, the interplay of foliage, shadow and movement produces a dynamic yet calming visual texture on the ground.

Along the terraced landscape staircase, lighting is integrated into the landscape features. Bollards concealed within the planting and discreetly built-in handrail lighting provide safe movement while enhancing the tactile qualities of the terrain.

At the timber deck extending partly over the pond, a warm linear light integrated into the decking edge reinforces the softness of the space while remaining low-mounted and carefully shielded. This ensures optimal night-time vision at the water’s edge while subtly marking the boundary towards the pond for safe movement. As the only light element placed here, it allows the surroundings to stay as dark as possible, minimising disturbance to birdlife in the pond — offering a calm refuge within the urban setting.

An artistic layer is introduced through subtle gobo projections set along a diagonal axis across the square, marking the trace of a historic main route. The projections cast clusters of warm light specks on the paving, enriching the visual palette without disturbing the overall spatial calm.

A collaborative model that elevated the outcome

A major strength of the project was the early and continuous involvement of the municipality’s in-house lighting specialist. This collaboration enabled lighting to be treated as a core spatial discipline, ensuring alignment across landscape, architecture and lighting throughout the process.

Technical precision informed by context

The final lighting design was shaped through day- and night-time photographic studies, documentation of tree dimensions and growth patterns, lighting calculation models, studies of pedestrian routes and human-scale sightlines, careful coordination with adjoining lighting environments to create harmonious transitions and inviting edges, and custom mounting solutions necessitated by underground utilities and a sensitive parking-deck membrane.

John Winthers Plads demonstrates how thoughtful lighting can transform an urban space — creating atmosphere, identity and belonging not by overpowering the night, but by illuminating it with care, precision and intention.