As population density in urban centers surges and apartments rise to record heights, natural light is becoming an increasingly scarce resource for city dwellers, a phenomenon that has perilous effects on the future of urban happiness. One young designer, however, has taken on this challenge in stride, using a method altogether unsuspected: coding.

Leslie Nooteboom, a Dutch designer who just finished his studies at the Royal College of Art, has devised a dynamic lighting system that mimics the changing hues and positioning of natural light. The light, named Komorebi, the untranslatable Japanese word for the effect of sunrays filtering through trees, is made of a projection generated by a Nooteboom’s algorithm beamed through a robotic projector.

"To have truly dynamic light—similar to how sunlight moves, changes color, reflects on objects, and filters through patterns—you need more control than simply a bulb," explains the designer. "The projection of Komorebi is generated by code. It is defined by set rules which create the overall shape of the light. This creates an effect in which the light has a rhythmic motion with an aspect of surprise, in the same way as shadow patterns of sunlight."

A video depicting Komorebi.

A summer in Japan working at noted design and innovation firm Takram left Nooteboom with an appreciation for the singular type of light that Komorebi offers. "While working in Tokyo last summer, the dappled sunlight falling through the leaves of trees on my commute was a welcome change to my static, concrete living environment there," recalls the designer. "Shortly thereafter I discovered that there was a unique Japanese word for that light: komorebi. This memory inspired a large part of my project."

Unfortunately for those ready to click "order," Komorebi is still in the prototype stage, though the designer is currently seeking a manufacturing partner.