Light + Building 2016: perfectly joined-up

Light + Building, held biannually in Frankfurt am Main, will open its doors from 13 to 18 March 2016. The world’s leading trade fair for lighting, design, and networked building services technology again anticipates over 200,000 visitors. For the eighth time, it will welcome professionals from diverse industries as it affirms its pre-eminence in its field, with nearly 2,500 exhibitors and a wide range of target groups.

Light + Building is a challenge that visitors relish – especially architects and technical planners. Given the breadth of information presented, some advance planning is advisable, as simply meandering through the halls, while edifying, isn’t particularly expedient. The content of the fair is divided into three segments: Lighting, Electrical Engineering, and House and Building Automation. The fair’s motto for 2016 is “Where modern spaces come to life: digital – individual – networked.”

Five “Top Themes” facilitate orientation within the category offerings. In the area of lighting, these are: design trends in the luminaire market, and the human-light-health triangle (human-centric lighting). And in the area of networked building services technology: smart homes, smart powered buildings, and safety and security technology.

The offerings of innovative products and concepts are enriched by a supporting programme featuring a great variety of exhibitions, award ceremonies, lectures, and special shows. One special show, Digital Building, on the grounds in front of Hall 8, is particularly suited to architects seeking to get up to speed on the complex of subjects around the networked interaction of control components for systems and devices in rooms and buildings.

“It’s about bringing together various systems from different manufacturers under a single control,” says Maria Hasselmann, brand manager for Light + Building. “That’s often the sticking point.” Digital Building focuses exclusively on solutions for non-residential buildings. For example, how can networked systems be used to optimise fire safety? How can the component systems of fire sprinklers, auxiliary lighting, the opening of doors, emergency announcements, emergency calls to the fire brigade, etc., be seamlessly coordinated?

If visitor surveys are any indicator, architects especially value the variety that Light + Building offers. Some are interested mainly in lighting and luminaires, others in building automation, interconnection, or digitisation, but most visitors alternate between the areas. They appreciate the dual emphases and the large number of product solutions and exhibitors.
“Our visitors see this as a special quality of the fair,” explains Maria Hasselmann. “Architects take advantage of both thematic areas as well, although we hope that in the future they’ll pay more attention to the technical solutions and won’t focus too heavily on the design aspects in the lighting halls. We have cooperative arrangements with various specialist publishers that offer tours for architects. They know the preferences of their target group, of course. This way, architects don’t miss anything essential, and they can decide then what area they want to see in greater depth.”

Another friendly challenge comes in the form of the Technology Forum. This event put on by the ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association) will complement the fair offerings with lectures on various topics. For example, the programme on one morning deals with building information modelling (BIM). This is a subject of great importance for the future. Light + Building offers a good opportunity for those wishing to get a first taste of it – at no charge. The “Intersec Forum” – independent of Light + Building and therefore not free – is taking place on 14 and 15 March. It’s the first congress to be held parallel to the fair that deals with networked security technology. Security is a broad field, ranging from fire safety to access control. While architects are still concerned first and foremost with the visible world, there will be no getting around smart technology in the future. The fair seeks to promote awareness of this subject and will publish a guide to security technology at Light + Building.

Trends for the coming season are another topic of interest that Light + Building will present. Four trend forecasts formulated for the fair by bora.herke.palmisano stilbüro of Frankfurt and Berlin will be put on display at the junction of Halls 5 and 6. The subject of their work is less the world of digital interconnection than that of interior design, especially of private spaces or areas in hotels and restaurants. One emphasis will be the integration of old products (lamps) in new interiors, as the trend show isn’t about architectural lighting schemes, but rather the individual luminaires. This yields surprising combinations, with completely novel results. It is, above all, an offer to the interior designer to solve problems of interior space and its illumination by means of design, without having to focus on the issue of technology. Numerous awards will be presented at the fair, including, to mention just the most important ones, Design Plus, the German Lighting Design Awards, and the Innovation Award for Architecture and Technology.

And those with energy left over won’t want to miss the Luminale. This will be the eighth edition of this unique event, which uses the city as its stage, casting architecture “in a whole new light” and presenting fascinating lighting concepts in the cityscape. An opportunity that only comes round every two years – during Light + Building.