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Light+Building 2016 has come and gone, having
confirmed itself once again as the world’s leading
trade fair for lighting and building-services technol-
ogy. This year, growth was recorded in number of
visitors, number of exhibitors and area occupied
and, as anticipated, the trade fair was exciting,
inspiring, fascinating and exhausting.
What did differentiate this year from others was
the clear indication that lighting, whether through
apps, mobile solutions, gesture control or profes-
sional lighting control, has arrived in the digital age.
At certain press events one could be forgiven for
being confused as to howmuch some of the topics
had to do with lighting, particularly when presenta-
tions focused on connectivity, Smart Cities, energy
efficiency and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Much of the technology is complex and dif-
ficult to explain. This was highlighted at a press
event hosted by Voltimum – a panel discussion of
the IoT, described as the ‘next big wave of disrup-
tive innovation’, with speakers from ABB, Osram,
Legrand, Philips and Schneider. One of the issues
grappled with was, “How do you explain complex
products and concepts to the end consumer?” I
have to admit at this stage that much of the discus-
sion was in German, though I can safely argue that
it may not have made much more sense to me in
English. What I did understand from the bits that
were in English and through conversation with a
fellow journalist was that, in future, knowledge
of ‘the possible’ will be essential for designers,
whether architect, engineer or lighting. Clients
should access a wide base of experts in order to
acquire knowledge. Rather than consult only the
representative of a single company it is better to
have a discussion with someone who has general
knowledge of software configurations and is able
to advise consumers on what can or cannot be
achieved with a system that exists independently.
The consensus was that within five years light-
ing will be connected and there will be a move away
from silos towards interoperability at data level and
via connectivity.This higher level of integration will
be required to provide the smart systems that users
or tenants of buildings will come to expect.
Smart is complex but many innovations have a
steep learning curve. In a few years what is now
arcane will become commonplace. Different prod-
ucts will be packaged together, something that has
already begun, so there will be no need to install
components separately to make them work. Indi-
vidualisation will be a major trend amongst consum-
ers and one trusts that the required technologies
will interact seamlessly.
World-Architects organised and conducted 16
guided tours at Light+Building. These were led by
lighting experts who each visited a series of manu-
facturers for a presentation of lighting solutions
and new technologies and to give an overview of
general trends in the industry. I joined the tour led
by Birgit Walter and thoroughly enjoyed being led
through the trade fair by professionals for three
reasons: First the speed with which we got from
one stand to the next by virtue of the fact that Re-
natoTurri, CEO of
world-architects.com, knows the
venue inside out so is able to travel by the quickest
the
FUTURE
of lighting
Image courtesy Messe
Frankfurt Exhibition
GmbH / Petra Welzel
LiD
FEB/MAR
2016
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