darc room hailed a success as visitor figures double
(UK) – darc room, London Design Festival’s lighting destination, a huge success as visitor figures double.
Following the critical success of the inaugural event last year, darc room 2018 exceeded expectations with over 2,000 visitors, up from just over 1,000 in 2017.
Paul James, director of darc room, commented: “I am absolutely delighted with the way darc room was received this year. Last year’s event was a critical success and this year it was a smash hit! Our substantial increase in both exhibitors and visitors prove to us that there is a need for a dedicated lighting design event at London Design Festival.”
darc room took place at the Nicholls & Clarke Building on Shoreditch High Street on 19 & 20 September as part of London Design Festival and is the festival’s only dedicated lighting event.
The boutique lighting specification exhibition had 50 exhibitors, eight workshops and the lighting industry’s first-ever live stream of lighting talks.
James continued: “The mix of creative, small stands where no one company dominates the event, together with strong education content in a great location really appeals to the designers and architects that attended this year’s show. We will aim to develop the concept further as we move forward with the darc room event.”
darc room : workshops and darc room : live, curated by the event’s creative consultants Light Collective, were very popular across both days with packed audiences enjoying the unique format of the educational content.
darc room : workshop participants included Tapio Rosenius, Skandal Technologies; Jeremy Fielding, Atrium; David Kriebel, LensVector; Francesco Anselmo, Arup; and Rebecca Hutchinson, John Cullen Lighting, as part of the ILP’s How To Be Brilliant series.
A Human-Centric Lighting panel consisted of Dr. Karolina M. Zielinska-Dabkowska RIBA, IALD, IES, MSLL who led a discussion with fellow professionals Mark Ridler (Director of Lighting at BDP); Rebecca Weir (Creative Director at Light IQ); Stephen Lisk (Lighting Designer and current President of CIBSE) and Iain Carlile (Lighting Designer and current President of the SLL).
darc room : live participants included Keith Bradshaw, Speirs + Major; artist Liz West; Paul Traynor, Light Bureau; Marci Song, SEAM; Neil Knowles, Elektra; Mark Tweedale, Light4 Cundall; Chiara Carucci, Tengbom; Olga Tuzova, Politecnico di Milano; Cinzia Moretti, Moretti Interior Design; George Singer; Ben Rigby, Haberdashery; and Monique Tollgard, Staffan Tollgard Design Group.
Manufacturer participants included acdc, AC Special Projects, Aion LED, Airstream, Alto, Applelec, Art et Floritude, AxaLight, Chroma Q, Casambi, Citizen, Coelux, Delta Light, Eaton, EcoSense, ELR, Elumeros, Erco, ES-System, Exenia, Feelux, Forge, formalighting, Hadler, Insta UK, ledbcn, LED Linear, LED Ltd, LensVector, Ligeo, Lightly Tech, Ligman, Linea Light Group, LightGraphix, Lite, Lumid, Madrix, Nicolaudie, ProLED, Pulsar, Quasar Science, Radiant, SAAS, SGM, Studio Moritz Waldemeyer, Targetti, tossB, Traxon, Tryka, Whitegoods and Zico Lighting.
The show is supported by CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers), BIID (British Institute of Interior Design), IALD (International Association of Lighting Designers), ILP (Institute of Lighting Professionals), SLL (Society of Light & Lighting) and SBID (Society of British and International Interior Design).
