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Light has a wide impact on human vision health, biorhythm, emotional cognition, metabolism and immunity through visual and non-visual biological effects, and is a key technology for human settlement health that is jointly focused on in the frontier fields of architecture, optics, life sciences, environmental engineering and other disciplines. This paper analyzes the healing role of light in human settlements, expounds the value and necessity of evidence-based research and design in creating a healthy light environment for human settlements, and shows a series of explorations and practices of light and health carried out by the author team in Antarctic research stations and medical buildings based on evidence-based theory, problem-oriented, built environment as the carrier, and the goal of realizing human settlement health.

First, light and human settlements

16 May 2019 – On the second International Day of Light, Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, delivered a speech under the theme "Understanding and using light for the benefit of all humankind", pointing out that from the origin of the universe to various new technologies, from X-rays to radio waves, light has shaped the human world, achieved a leap in science and technology, and its natural functions and its applications in science and technology, from the origin of the universe to various new technologies, from X-rays to radio waves, in medicine, agriculture, energy, optics and many other fields. It is an indispensable element of the daily life of human society and the key to achieving the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development[1]. From the ancient Egyptian era when people set up stained glass in the room and used different colors of sunlight rays through the glass to treat diseases, to 127 years ago, Danish doctor Niels Ryberg Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for his pioneering contributions to the use of light radiation therapy to treat skin diseases such as lupus vulgaris and smallpox, mankind has a long history of exploring light health. However, the real research content of light health as a discipline of human settlements is the events of the past 20 years. On the one hand, the leapfrog development of semiconductor lighting technology has made LED light sources that are easy to dim and easy to achieve scene customization have been widely used; On the other hand, with the discovery of the third type of photoreceptor cells of the human eye in 2002 by David Bertson and others [2], the mechanism of light vision and non-visual action has become clearer, and human beings have entered the subdivision of healthy light environment research, expanding the research and design practice of light from space creation and visual efficacy to physiological regulation, emotional intervention and cognitive improvement. And try to use light in the space as a positive environmental element to improve the health and well-being of human settlements.

Second, the healing effect of light in human living space

Rapid urbanization has brought about socio-economic development and improved people's living standards, but also brought severe human settlements and health challenges. The deep aging of the population structure, the accelerating pace of social life, the increasing pressure of work-study competition, and the frequent use of electronic smart devices have led to a series of visual health problems and also aggravated the risk of various physical and mental diseases. Starting from the source of health promotion, various health intervention technologies, means and methods to actively adjust the imbalance state urgently need to be explored and developed. Light is the main component of the physical environment of human settlements, and has the multi-dimensional health effect of "visual-physiological-psychological". The generally recognized WELL standard in the field of healthy buildings and the nine basic elements of healthy buildings proposed by the Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health focus on the light environment. It can be affirmed that through the reasonable setting of the amount of light, spatial light distribution, light source spectrum, lighting strategy, as well as the customized design of lighting landscape and light art media interface, it is of considerable research significance to eliminate the negative impact of environmental pathogenic factors by using light as a direct and effective, safe and side-effect active health intervention means for human settlements.