Light + Building Day Events Round Up
The biennial visit to the Light + Building never fails to deliver an electrifying mix of innovation, networking, and celebrations. Amidst the bustling crowds and displays from brands, we at arc eagerly dived into both seeing our familiar encounters and fresh connections. While the event may exude the opportunity to reunite with those old friends, our mission remained focussed on both work endeavours and discovering new insights. Below is a snapshot of what we got up over the few days.
DALI
Monday’s celebrations on the Dali Alliance stand included a special drinks reception to celebrate the victors in the Dali Lighting Awards 2024. Members of the winning teams were invited to raise a glass to their achievements with the DALI team, while being informally presented with a DALI Lighting Award trophy.
12 winners over eight categories were selected for their innovative application of DALI in lighting design and control.
Paul Drosihn, Dali Alliance General Manager says: “These projects demonstrate the outstanding results that can be achieved across the globe using DALI in lighting design and control, spanning a breadth of applications and sectors. It’s a fantastic testament to how the lighting industry has embraced DALI and is leveraging this technology to gain significant benefits.”
Silhouette Awards
The Silhouette Awards held an in-person celebration hosted by LED Luks on Tuesday, where young talents in the lighting were honoured. Inspirational talks were hosted by members from the co-founders of the programme, Katia Kolovea of Archifos and Stacey Westbrook of Parrot PR and Marketing, along with mentors and past winners of this remarkable initiative.
The pioneering awards, a collaboration between Parrot PR and Marketing and Archifos, aims to spotlight emerging talent in the lighting industry and provide support throughout their careers. This includes a platform to showcase new industry talent and a six-month mentorship programme with a senior lighting professional for the awardees.
VLDC
On the Wednesday afternoon, the Virtual Lighting Design Community (VLDC), held a get together with drinks, canapés, and baklava, on the Aero Lighting stand. Normally an online community, the get together gave current and potential members from around the world the opportunity to meet in person and catch-up face to face. VLDC founders Martin and Ingmar Klaasen, Amardeep Dugar, Katia Kolovea, Martin Lupton, and Sharon Stammers were all present and on-hand to answer any questions about the platform, and to talk about the benefits of joining the ever-expanding community of members.
Claudia Paz LEDC4 collaboration
Peruvian lighting designer Claudia Paz displayed a lighting installation in the Architectural Indoor and Outdoor product area. Paz provided visitors with a transformative experience to understand the impact of light on space perception and materials. Integration of a DMX system allowed individual control of each ‘Taglio di luce’, injecting dynamism into the space and creating an area where light sequences designed by Paz came to life.
Paz says: “We live in a digital world, where everything is in motion and constantly evolving. Lighting design merges with technology to move beyond the technical aspects and towards creating experiences and emotional connections with users. Where are we headed? Towards a digital world where light plays a crucial role.”
Erco Play
Erco offered an interactive stand this year that allowed visitors to experience sustainable lighting solutions in a fun game allowing visitors at the ERCOplay stations to test their lighting knowledge across five interactive stations:
At Station 1, participants turned into lighting directors on a miniature stage. Using the new Axis showcase lighting, a lighting concept based on the “3-point lighting” approach, had to be realised. Moving on to Station 2, the lenses of Optec spotlights were to be changed until the light was precisely aligned with the target surfaces. At the downlight station, the objective was to solve estimation questions, including about light distribution, with a quick tap on the buzzer. Station 4 was outdoor-themed: The teams were asked to practise aligning the Beamer spotlights. The 5th station, ‘hands on’ Invia, encouraged participants to experiment with ERCO’s linear system to create their own lighting scenes including wall washing, ambient lighting, indirect and accent lighting.
After completion everyone who participated then entered a draw to win an Erco Light. However, everyone left a winner with knowledge on sustainable lighting and a delicious chocolate bar to boot.
Next edition of Light _+ Building set to be held 8-13 March 2026, Frankfurt.
