An American in Frankfurt

EFFICIENT AND DECORATIVE One reason to attend Light+Building is to enjoy the superb art and industrial design of luminaires for which European lighting is known. This year, the design direction is definitely a late modern revival. In many stands, I felt like I had been beamed back to 1965. Cultural differences added some flavor, with companies from Spain, Italy, France, and other countries taking the motif into their own unique and sometimes refreshing interpretations.

While there are still a surprisingly large number of incandescent and halogen luminaires, there are now a world of great designs based around compact fluorescent lamps and other sources. Dominating the design motif is an evolved modernism, with simple shapes and materials, now wrapped around compact fluorescent lamps. Recurring themes include:

BIG SHADES Cylindrical-round and box-rectangular shades are a strong trend. Many are translucent, with fabric, acrylic, beaded, or resin-sided with a wide range of color options. Luminaires include floor lamps, table lamps, arc lamps, and pendants. Overscale floor lamps and pendants are definitely in.

APPEALING SCONCES Thank goodness, the sconce craze is gone. The number of choices seemed smaller than previous years, but the design quality remains high. There are several using the T5 Circline lamp; others employ conventional compact lamps.

PATTERNS Several companies now show the conventional “bowl” fixture, as well as sconces and lanterns, with patterns. Different from landscape lighting, these are a delightful surprise for residential and hospitality projects.

FABULOUS ACRYLIC The ability to introduce artful glowing shapes is a clear trend with many companies exhibiting illuminated acrylic forms. Shapes ranging from organic to downright fun were spotted in both indoor and outdoor versions. Many supported the modernist ethic through strong geometry, but my favorites are the most playful. While most of these appeared to be intended as white light sources, quite a few were spotted with color-changing bodies, sometimes with white light accents.

HALL 3: WORLD CLASS ARCHITECTURAL LIGHTING This is where to see the full breadth of the best and most innovative architectural lighting, including downlights, track, and other integrated and recessed lighting. There is an awe-inspiring level of engineering and precision, supported by excellence in industrial design. Most of the products use ceramic metal halide, compact fluorescent, and LED sources. A few halogen fixtures remain available, too, although the market is no longer dominated by them.

The strongest impression is that “track is back,” including new track systems as well as dozens of new luminaires for existing systems. The most apparent differences between U.S. and European philosophies involve lamping and shielding. I was told in no uncertain terms that separate lamps and reflectors (e.g., T6 metal halide) are superior to sealed beam lamps, such as MR and PAR lamps. On the other hand, I still feel there is something to be said for American practices of shielding and lensing not nearly as evident on these systems. I hear a debate coming.

An innovation not yet on the U.S. scene is the Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) track. By placing the DALI signal as well as power in the track, individual fixture control is possible, including unit incandescent dimmers, dimming ballasts for HID and fluorescent lamps, and dimming LED drivers. This could reinvent museum lighting and perhaps serve as an occupancy-sensitive display lighting system where you approach a merchandise display and it becomes brighter. Imagine if we could dim most retail display lighting in this manner.