Lighting Trends As Seen By Light.In

Good news or bad news? 2011 is almost here, and the lighting industry is on the edge. It is the edge of biggest challenges and changes, the Age of Discovery has left us with plenty of ideas but with limited resources. Is the world of lighting ready for it?

1. MOTLEY CREW

The trendiest places are diverting from concepts to anti-concepts, using all that has come to hand for lighting. The creative spirit combines all kinds of fixtures, old, new, elegant, clumsy, big, small... in one spot. Seemingly versatile, all luminaires are bound by one type of the light source, thus creating the perfectly thought-of effect. (Anti)-conceptual?

Shit Store, Stavanger, Norway

More >> Waste Wood, Fuselage Cupboards... and Bestlite

2. LIVING LIGHTS

Switch is dead. Controls take over. We witness the rise of a control system. Every project specification reads DALI, an acronymfor digital addressable lighting interface, or simply, a system operating each light fitting as an individual address (same way as PCs in your office are connected in a network). Lighting control systems are usually a part of a larger building management system that reigns over security, ventilation, and on and on. For an ordinary user it means: we now can officially disregard that old switch on the wall. Lights will go off automatically.

Dubai Mall, UAE

More >> Can You Hear It Ticking?

3. iLIGHT

Last year we wrote about specialized apps. This year, you can download onto your iPhone everything from electronic catalogues to light effect simulator and cost calculators. We are using, among others, a mobile version of a light calculation program available online @ fagerhult.mobi

Louis Poulsen catalogue and LED ROI calculator

4. HIDE-N-SEEK

Ambivalence of a human nature: we spend fortunes on luxury goods in the time of recession, we speak sustainability losing lumens and kilowatts behind kilometers of coves and niches. Minimum is maximum. Like it or not, cove lighting is in trend. Check!

Terminal 3, Dubai Airport, UAE

5. WINDOW SHOPPING IS FREE

Shop windows have become a very distinctive separate form of visual art. Dedicated companies (we like and follow New Crazy Colours) are utilizing transmedia to further accentuate the idea. Does window display merchandizing demand special forms of light fittings?

DSquared2 Boutique, UAE

6. MATERIALIZE IT

From intangible waves to tangible walls, light becomes a decoration or a building material of its own. Soon we will be looking for a conventional luminaire but finding glowing surfaces. Manufacturers will be having hard time with all their punching and bending machines. Acquisition of a wallpaper factory or a concrete-mixer is definitely a plan.

LiTraCon (light transmitting concrete). Photo courtesy - Litracon, Hungary

7. TERMINATOR

Prognosis for 2020: LED will replace most of the light sources in different spheres of application. The most resistant to the assault is a T5 lamp (doesn't it look like a Jedi sword?) Fast technology shift plus shortage of ballast and gear components are the main causes of this penetration.

LED penetration by lighting application as efficacy improves and costs reduce:

Retail, Outdoor and Professional (compact fluorescent) - most affected sectors, Professional T5 - least impact of LED

Stay on the light side and May the Force be with you!

Light.In

Can You Hear It Ticking?

DUBAI, UAE

Rolex tower undoubtedly stands out of the fence of tall buildings populated Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road. Not only its ruled geometry but effect on a daylight and moonlit landscape that impress.
Pass it at noon, and the zenith Sun twinkles you across the sequence of opaque and transparent glass panels. Stop by after sunset and hundreds of sparkles flow down a colossal coal.

Brilliantly engineered and performed, LED strips hidden in the panels of glass flash controlled by DMX protocol, as if connected to a meticulous watch mechanism. And it is the noise of the Sheikh Zayed, otherwise you would hear it ticking.

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

Having spent seven long years in a classical choreography school, I appreciate the intricacies of the body language and the ways to either enhance or to hide the emotions conveyed by it. The right atmosphere is always a key to creating the feeling of catharsis when watching a dance...

...and Wade Robson's modern interpretation of John Mayer' song is a perfect proof. Beautiful - with the lighting set up of two projectors installed on a wall opposite the mirror, casting shadowy intimate and dramatic light and accentuating the body talk. Sensuous, verrrry!

Moving in the darkness

A TUNNEL

Can you count how often you are in a complete darkness? The complete darkness derives us of certain sensations or skills that we obtain during our light experiences through years. A small proof of this: tunnels of one of the Dubai aqua-parks. Your brain sends no signals of whether it is going to be right or left turn, whether there are any obstacles on your way. Information is perceived this very moment of action incapable of any predictions. Navigating in light we 'plan' the route through the vision, darkness leaves us with the only question: what's next?

To cut it short: light operates our lives, darkness brings a pinch of fun

Electrrrrric

JACK JOHNSON'S ALBUM Sleep Through The Static was made with 100% solar energy: all the songs were recorded onto analogue tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles.

That's how the music (acoustic songs performed by a surfer singer who gets inspired by the ocean waves and open skies) seamlessly blends with the light... and you go on whistling his tunes and feeling the sun on your skin and thinking of how pleasures can sometimes be guilt-free and environmentally conscious.

Dance Dance Dance

DUBAI FOUNTAINS, Dubai, UAE

Unsurpassed: 275m long (the size of two football fields), water nozzles shoot water sprays to heights of over 150m (equivalent of a 50-storeyed building), 6600 lights and 50 coloured projectors provide the full spectrum of colour with a total output of 1,5 million lumen. These are the "dry" facts.

Unforgettable: we were trying to film it several times but would forget to press the record button... How can water and light create such plasticity and convey complex Arabic choreography? For the real thing, go Dubai Burj Khalifa. For our a-la b&w comic book Marvel-style video, click on play.

SWITCHitON

SWITCH RESTAURANT, Dubai, UAE

The fav dining out place of a lighting geek should give as much emotional food as... oh what was on the menu?

Karim Rashid's Switch Restaurant and Lounge in Dubai Mall lives up to its name: it is the embodiment of transformation. The sand-dune-shaped walls with continuous colour changing, play on light and shadow, striking black ribbon of the ceiling with Arabic ornamental script, lit up fluid floor, lighting wall decor... it's all about illusions, it's all about impressions, it's all about light.

PS. And you eventually forget your mojito is non-alcoholic :)

LUXurious Knowledge

LUXIPEDIA HOME PAGE, Fagerhult Lighting Academy

Light has always been a source of inspiration for different visual arts like painting, photography and cinema, it has brought up brilliant metaphors used in poetry and music but in all its creative spectrum there's a whole scientific field lying underneath.

To better describe the multiplicity of light and uncover the latest developments in lighting, Fagerhult Lighting Academy have launched Luxipedia, an interactive encyclopedia with a clear navigation and articles that shed light to a broad range of topics. A handy instrument that we are using!

Avatar

NEW ZEALAND

One of the key parameters in light perception is reflection. The reflection factor of material is always considered when making lighting calculations as the beam of light touches surfaces and either travels through them or is absorbed or bounced back thus creating various impressions. This is the essence of lighting design.

The best samples of lighting design are provided by nature though. New Zealand's environments could serve as the un-3D-redefined background for any sci-fi movie. The image itself is surrealistic enough, with the still water acting as a mirror enabling the rock chain literally fly high over the earth. No computer image superimposed. 100% natural.

photo: courtesy Dmitry Loshagin

Air & Lines

URAL AIRLINES OFFICE, Ekaterinburg, Russia

We are happy to present the project of Ural Airlines HQ in Ekaterinburg, Russia - our friend, architect Timur Abdullaev, and his bureau In.Form's creation.

The complex forms of the building are meant to reflect and unite the complexity of versatile functions and structures of the Ural Airlines company, one of the biggest Russian carriers. The interior lighting had also to be aesthetically in line with the concept, highlight the architectural details (i.e. irregular angles and curves), add on volume and be as technologically advanced as the aircraft industry.

That's how the solution was developed - Air & Lines. Massive wall luminaires, protruded on heavy-duty metal arms under the glass dome, and floating round-shaped fixtures helped to accentuate the air. The lines penetrate the whole office area: continuous strips of light following the curves, star-like structures in the lobby, linear vertical light emphasizing the columns.

The project participated in the OfficeNext2010 award and was among the top 3 nominees for the Best Brand and Concept award.

And we are proud to be a part of it :)

photo: courtesy 3D Sfera

Let the Sun in, bit by bit

HISTORY MUSEUM, DUBAI, UAE. Whilst other countries are building their lighting philosophies on the lack of the Sun, Middle East tradition is based on its abundance. A hut replica in the History Museum of Dubai illustrates logical and simple solution of letting in enough daylight and circulation of air. Bedhead is protected against direct light by a round-shaped rug. Good morning, Wisdom!

Dubai Metro

DUBAI, UAE. A regular metro passanger, I do enjoy Dubai's metro. The local RTA, Road and Transport Authorities, are up to create a sustainable and feasible transportation system in the city. Slowdown puts on hold opening of several station, but the most important stations are open (remember, Emirati are good merchants, and they have opened the most commercially potent locations, such as Mall of the Emirates, Dubai Mall, Financial Center, etc).





Metro is new, clean, garded by police in fashionable uniform, convenient to use and chill out before or after work. But what if it is a weekend (Friday and Saturday for most of the companies)? Chill out music, names of the stations changing from English to Arabic, Sun jumping out from one tower to hide behind the other, and interiors. designed as a football uniform -- modern, technologically advanced and slightly different in pattersns. And a whipped cream of lighting on top.

Light on parade

MALL OF THE EMIRATES, DUBAI, UAE

Accidentally I have bunped into a marching band opening a Shopping Festival in Dubai. Lood music and some hundred or more participants. Such heavy shopper as myself, I had almost turned away until I saw the glow.