Light+Building and Luminale in Frankfurt - 2012

Effortlessly through the trade fair jungle with World-Architects.com – For the national and international lighting industry, Light+Building taking place every two years is a must. The figures speak for themselves: In 2012, more than 2,300 exhibitors from 50 countries presented their innovations on 240,000 square metres; on the 6 days of the trade fair almost 200.000 visitors flocked into the 11 halls with 20 exhibition levels altogether. Perfect for all those who had themselves guided through the exhibition jungle by experts – in a highly varied and independent way: Once again this year, international visitors met at World-Architects.com to be guided through the trade fair by renowned specialist planners as part of the “Guided Tours”. Corresponding “Guided Evenings” made it possible for light art enthusiasts to enjoy an individual trip through the Luminale in the evening.

What has been discussed in the media and politics since 2011 at the latest is practically an old chestnut for the building industry: In the course of the so-called energy turnaround, the building of the future ought to become more energy-efficient and, in an ideal situation, cover its own energy consumption all by itself. In a building, lighting makes up about one fifth of the domestic energy consumption, depending on the user behaviour – initially, that may sound like little saving potential in this field. However: particularly the issue of lighting visualises energy savings in the clearest and most emotional way. Previously, with the bulb as only illuminant alternative in the residential sector, those who wanted to save energy could only switch off the light, the consequence being darkness. However, since the gradual ban of the bulb (this year, the 40- and 25-watt bulbs are prohibited) and at the latest since the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, a process of rethinking has begun on all levels. Manufacturers make massive investments in new technologies that can do both: generate light and save energy nonetheless. In recent years, this has been made possible by the so-called energy-saving lamp; but with its components partly being made of pollutants such as quicksilver it never really made the breakthrough. The LED seems to be beneficial, because it is less complex regarding its structure and additionally has a considerably higher efficiency than the energy-saving lamp. That is why almost every exhibitor at the 2012 Light+Building focuses on LED technology – this year, the range of new possibilities using the small, light emitting component was overwhelmingly comprehensive.

The major players on the lighting and luminaire market had (as one would expect) numerous high-quality solutions ready. Here, it is obvious: the LED has long emancipated itself from being used solely as an accessory for colourful façade animations. Meanwhile, the LED has developed into a serious successor of the bulb. Consequently, it is now no longer about the question of “whether” but rather a question of “how”. Issues such as light colour, colour reproduction, dimming behaviour and scattering are just a few subjects the wide field of LED technology involves for manufacturers. Many answers have already been given at Light+Building. It is, however, clearly noticeable that a lot more will be feasible in the future. The lighting market is still on the move, and both planners and consumers face an exciting lighting age.

In this course, a lot is, of course, happening in the field of building automation and decentralised energy generation. Here the keyword is the Smart Grid, the intelligent power grid in a building. After all, a building has been able to do more than just consume energy for quite some time. Solar systems generate energy on the roof, energy storage devices store energy in the basement and control systems control the current flow – and all that completely independently. The ideas to this end are not new, but the variety of linkage and control possibilities of single generators and consumers has enormously increased in recent years. Consequently, many innovations, which take on the control not just of lighting but all components connected to the electrical grid from the solar cell to the coffee machine through to the electric car, could be discovered at the 2012 Light+Building. Power management with the clear objective of energy savings is a major issue in this field.

The Guided Tours offered by World-Architects.com clearly demonstrated how diversified the lighting market is at the moment. On their tours, the nine guides, Gerd Pfarré, Gabriele Allendorf, M. Hank Haeusler, Jan Dinnebier + Jan Blieske, Ulrike Brandi, Wilfried Kramb + Giulio Castegini, and Daniel Klages obviously presented the innovations of the ‘great’ manufacturers. On the 6 days of the trade fair, they also guided the participants to smaller and less renowned manufacturers, who were all the more worth visiting because they are frequently able to generate astounding lighting scenarios with niche products. The composition of the tours was entirely the responsibility of the guides, who could thus place the presented products in a direct context with their work as lighting designers. A brief work report at the start of each tour offered the participating architects, designers, engineers, and students an interesting introduction to their projects. Being taken by the hand in this way, the participants of the Guided Tours by World-Architects.com were thus given a very good, professionally founded and, above all, very personal overview of trade fair innovations at Light+Building.

In the last ten years, optimal provisions have been made for light pleasures in the evenings of the trade fair. Since 2002, the ‘Luminale’ light festival has been taking place parallel to the Light+Building trade fair. This year, the festival extended over Frankfurt’s city centre and the entire Rhine-Main area with almost 170 light installations. In Frankfurt City alone, more than 100 light artworks could be marvelled at. This year, however, light art enthusiasts could do without strenuous selection research because World-Architects.com in collaboration with architecture journalist Thomas Geuder from ‘raumjournalismus’ organised bus transfers to selected light installations for the first time and with great success. The motto of the tours was the individual experience of the interplay of light, people and architecture. In a light shower, for example, participants had the opportunity to test the physical and psychological reactions to different light colours (Light-Freshener by Vera Wegener, [Slow Light | Fast Light] at AusstellungsHalle, from iLo Dutch Institute of Lighting Design), paint the facade of Literaturhaus with light (MobiSpray at the Literaturhaus, by MobiLenin), experience light and sound as a live performance (Visual Piano at the Senckenberg Museum, by Kurt Laurenz Theinert) or project a 200-metre high light bar to the management floor of the Tower 185 by means of a “ring-the-bell” game (Lukas 185 by Day&Light Lichtplanung). A special highlight of the Luminale was the ‘Resonate’ (FH Mainz) installation on a container ship anchored at the Hohlbeinsteg, where light, space and sound were made perceivable for the visitors. On the banks of the River Main, the visitors could finish off the ‘Guided Evening’ with an original apple wine in a relaxed manner. images

This is what the participants of the ‘Guided Tours’ organised by World-Architects.com could experience. The throughout positive feedback and the pleasure the more than 400 participants expressed prove the concept right. After the trade fair is before the trade fair, and so we can enjoy the anticipation of the next ‘Guided Tours’ with World-Architects.com. Thomas Geuder

Thomas Geuder works as a free-lance architecture journalist in Stuttgart.


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Peter Petz | [email protected] | +49 171 782 76 72