Light + Intelligent Building Middle East This January, arc editor Matt Waring travelled to Dubai for the latest edition of Light + Intelligent Building Middle East to check out its ThinkLight talks programme. Here, he recaps an educational trip.
Top Sharon Stammers, Co-Founder of Light Collective (right) leads a “Fireside Chat” with Florence Lam, Global Lighting Design Director, Arup (right). Bottom Left Andrew Bissell, Partner at Ridge and Partners. Bottom Right Martin Lupton, CoFounder of Light Collective.
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This January, the international lighting design community gathered in Dubai, UAE for the 17th edition of Light + Intelligent Building Middle East. Showcasing the latest innovations in lighting from the MENA region and beyond, the show this year was driven by the overall theme of Enlightened Future: How responsibility will guide the future of Light and Buildings. Spanning across three halls – with a 75% growth in event space and 128% increase in exhibitor numbers from 2023, more than 400 international exhibitors came to Dubai’s International Trade Center for three days of networking. Alongside the bustling trade floor, the show also hosted several talks programmes – the Smart Building Summit, InSpotLight, and ThinkLight, each with a healthy programme that looked at some of the key industry topics of discussion, from circularity and sustainability, to city design, technology (notably AI), and dark skies. Such was the strength of the talks programme, particularly the ThinkLight stage, curated by Sharon Stammers and Martin Lupton of Light Collective, I made the journey to Dubai (my first time in the city, would you believe!) to check it out. Having seen the growing buzz around the show in previous years, it seemed like an excellent chance to reconnect with some familiar faces, meet a few new ones, and get inspired by some fantastic speakers. First on the agenda, after a brief flurry of hellos, handshakes and hugs, was the incomparable Lauren Dandridge, Principal at Los Angeles-based Chromatic and Adjunct Associate Professor at USC School of Architecture, who opened proceedings with her keynote presentation. I’ve long been a fan of Dandridge, since our fascinating chat back in arc #126, so I was very
keen to hear her speak under the broader theme of Enlightened Futures: Cities. Her session didn’t disappoint, taking a particular focus on the notion of responsibility – whether this is circular responsibility, civic responsibility, or liability – and how the lighting design community can collectively take more responsibility in its work. A particular focus of hers is lighting in the public realm, and how urban lighting can be seen as a privilege for those that can afford it, or a weapon for those that can’t – this was again addressed, with some striking examples of “Omnipresence”, and the common misnomer that increasing light levels reduces crime, where lighting, she feels, is talked of as a “treatment for a virus”. Her talk was followed by a series of short sessions from Sebnem Gemalmaz, Lighting Design Leader at Arup Turkey; Charles Stone, Founder and President of Fisher Marantz Stone; Chris Lowe, Senior Design Manager on the Diryah Gate Giga Project, Saudi Arabia; Ahmed El Banawy, Associate Director at Nakheel, UAE; and Elisa Hillgen, City of Light Coordinator for Jyväskylä, Finland. Each presentation delivered a different take on issues surrounding lighting for the urban realm – whether that is using light to create an enhanced sense of belonging, particularly in underprivileged areas; the complexities of masterplanned cities compared to those that grow more organically over a long period of time; or how designers and urban planners can develop a culture around urban lighting, particularly in areas where natural light is lacking. All talks reverted back to the overall goal of needing to put people first, whatever the project or its brief. Following the brief presentations, Dandridge led a panel discussion with each of the speakers to