Light+Building

Martin Lupton, lighting designer, Light Collective, London Bio: Lupton is a former director of two major U.K. lighting practices and the current president of the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA). In conjunction with fellow lighting designer Sharon Stammers, he has co-founded a new practice: Light Collective. Light Collective’s aspiration is to understand, interpret, and work with light in all of its contexts: artistic, social, architectural, commercial, cultural, physiological, and psychological, while providing a platform for like-minded and inspired people to collaborate in a multitude of ways and in different formats all with the medium of light.

Impressions of Light+Building:

I had very high hopes for this year’s Light+Building. I thought it would be a year of new trends and high innovation. I really thought it was going to be special, but on the whole I was a little bit disappointed. There were some good elements and the overall standard of products had increased but, for me, there wasn’t any one, unique, standout trendsetting product. Perhaps my expectations were too high?

One thing though was clear: White LEDs are definitely here and ready. White LEDs have really come of age. In fact, there were several stands lit in nothing but white LEDs and you could actually see what you were looking at! In addition to that luxury, the light quality was also good on a significant number of these fixtures. It was definitely a turning point.

Of the products that I would pick out for individual credit and attention, I am going to surprise myself and first say Philips. Their stand itself and some of the new products were very impressive. I had to eat a few of my words from the night before when I sat with their marketing team and praised their lamps but criticized their product design. They had a very innovative LED catenary system for street lighting that can run up to 30 meters long—really neat and minimal. They also had a fantastic domestic control system, called LivingAmbience that was based on wireless technology and worked with their specifically adapted products and, using special plug adapters, with other manufacturers’ products. This would make a great retrofit into domestic systems to save energy and add scene control without extensive rewiring. They also had some good output white LED office solutions. One company you can always rely on is Flos. They always manage to do something different and have a very special approach to light and product. Their stand at Euroluce in Milan last year (2009) was streets ahead of all others. Despite only having a small presence at Light+Building this year, which was branded as Flos Germany (Light+Building occurred concurrently with the Milan Furniture fair this year), they still managed to impress with the launch of their soft architecture range. This extensive range is made up of some really unique and entertaining plaster-in lighting details—very funky and really slick.

On the product front, one company that really did think out of the box and create something new was Modular Lighting from Belgium. Their Spock luminaire really does match aesthetics and function in a whole new way.

Probably the highlight of the show for me was XAL. Their slick, black, dim velvety stand showed not just cool product, but some cool lighting. It was a great place to be and not just another white box lined with product. Their LED curved track with chain curtain system was beautiful and they also showed some interesting downlights and soft-edged triangular LED office lighting ideas. Congratulations XAL for setting an example and thank you for the sunglasses you were giving away to protect me from the glare from most of the other stands.

Finally, I would like to pose a question to everyone who is going to be at Light+Building in 2012: Why does every stand have to look the same? I am a lighting designer. I want to be inspired. I am not buying a fridge. Please do not try to tempt me into your stand by lining up all your products in a nice row and pointing them at my face. If you want some ideas for a cool stand, give me a call!