Lighting in Design May-June 2016

Image courtesy Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH / Petra Welzel

the FUTURE of lighting

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

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LiD FEB/MAR 2016