Zumtobel Group plans Lichtforum for Amsterdam
(Netherlands) – Venue to host year-round programme of events themed around light and technology, architecture and urban planning.
Designed as an open house, the Lichtforum (light forum), located in the UP Building, will also host a showroom for all three of the Group’s brands: Zumtobel, Thorn and Tridonic.
“Amsterdam is an extremely attractive location for our industry,” commented Zumtobel Group CEO Ulrich Schumacher. “As well as engaging in intensive dialogue with some of the world’s leading architects, at this international hub we will also be able to work alongside some exciting technology partners.
“Our aim is to develop new and innovative business models in the field of lighting. In pursuit of this goal, our new Amsterdam Lichtforum with its international team will be an important innovation driver for Zumtobel Group as a whole.”
The Amsterdam Lichtforum will host a year-round programme of events themed around light and technology, architecture and urban planning. There will also be a new Zumtobel Group LightLAB, acting as an important incubator for innovations. Here, in-house designers and applications experts will work alongside partners from universities and technology firms on visionary projects.
In addition, the Thorn brand will set up its own luminaire concept development team in Amsterdam, just an hour’s flight away from the brand’s main plant in Spennymoor in the north of England.
By May 2015, Zumtobel Group plans to recruit an international team of some 25 employees for the Amsterdam Lichtforum.
“In the age of LED technology we need to study the latest trends more closely than ever – be it in terms of new materials, software solutions, sensor technology or communications electronics,” said Rogier van der Heide, Chief Marketing & Design Officer at Zumtobel and responsible for coordinating the activities of the new Lichtforum in Amsterdam.
“In the new LightLAB we have the ideal place to develop concepts for the future, for knowledge transfer and to inspire our development teams around the world. But we will also be realising very special, customer-specific lighting projects in Amsterdam that will pave the way for whole new business models for us.”
