There are numerous situations in which human behavior may escalate; in which persons lose self-control, get abusive, aggressive, and cross behavioral boundaries they would normally not cross. Such situations may occur in crowded outdoor situations (public events, urban night life) as well as in small-scale indoor settings (prisons, service & help desks, psychiatric wards). The De-escalate project studies the utilization of dynamic lighting in preventing escalation and in defusing aggressive situations. In De-escalate, Eindhoven University of Technology cooperates with governmental and non-profit organizations, and commercial partners to develop and test mechanisms for de-escalation through light, for example, by lowering arousal, inducing positive mood, broadening attention, increasing self-awareness and self-control. The project aims to broaden our understanding of the effects of light in controlled laboratory studies, and will develop and test methods of de-escalation through light in situ; in two escalation-prone real life settings including Eindhoven’s inner-city entertainment area Stratumseind.