AWARD YEAR
2015
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure
KEYWORDS
bus shelters, winter blues, Light-therapy
COUNTRY
Sweden
DESIGNED BY
Umeå Energi
WEBSITE
http://www.umeaenergi.se
UV Light Therapy
Light-therapy bus shelters set to cheer you up from the winter blues.
you live in the north, like far north, summers are like one long day. With the big ball of fire never dropping behind the horizon, getting shut-eye involves donning an eye mask or getting some seriously thick curtains to block out the light. Winter, on the other hand, is another matter.
With the sun disappearing off on vacation to, well, warmer climes, many people living in places like Umea in northern Sweden are left to deal with weeks of hardly any sunshine, a situation which in some cases can bring on the symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder, a kind of depression most commonly associated with the dark winter months.
With this in mind, Umea’s energy company has decided to offer some light therapy to the town’s citizens, installing energy-boosting ultra-violet lights in some 30 bus stops about the town.
“This is so people can get a little energy kick as they are waiting,” Umea Energi’s marketing chief Anna Norrgard said.