Reviewing LiGHT23 – Chris Fordham steps out at BDC.

.Do you ever get that strange feeling of déjà vu? When I entered the exhibition hall, I certainly had it by the bucketload; after all I had only been at the BDC three days earlier, on the Friday, at another exhibition (HIX) where lights had featured quite heavily. I still hadn’t worked out if this visit was going to be a blessing or a curse, if any of the products would have changed . . . or would the visit even be worth it?!

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The short answer is . . . yes, of course it was worth it. LiGHT 23 is certainly an event I can recommend, even if its a bit weird – being so close to another event. At this year’s show there was a mixture of classics alongside all manner of product innovation, most of which would have been impossible without the LED. Don’t ya just love progress! 

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On the Artemide stand was a mini-version of the classic Nessuno table light. I love the vibrant colours, and the fact that, without knowing much about the product, you could probably guess the period in which it was originally made. Go on have a guess, it could only be from the 60’s right?! I spoke to Laura Salviati from the Milan office about her product.

‘This is one of our most iconic pieces. The original version is a little bit bigger, the Nesso, and it was designed in 1965, using what at the time was a new innovative technology, plastic. Giancarlo Mattioli started to work with our founder, Ernesto Gismondi to develop the final version of this light, and after the birth of Nesso, Nessino what you are seeing here, was born. Its available in vibrant ‘pop’ colours, and always with this warm tone, to create this beautiful atmosphere. It’s still as contemporary today as when it was born. It’s one of our most successful products, in this last year product sales have grown enormously’.

The product uses an E14 socket, so you can just use a LED lamp nowadays. I hadn’t realised it was plastic before I saw it on the stand so when I asked about sustainability, I guess the response was obvious, the most sustainable product is one that you buy once and never throw away; a hand-me-down to the next generation !

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From the old to the new, the next product could not be further removed from the Nessino, and its age of plastic lust. Back in the day it’s a shame the question was never asked, any idea how we are going to get rid of all this stuff? I asked Martina Alagna, marketing, and development manager to tell me all about Linealight’s EVO, its new totally recyclable downlights.

‘The EVO collection was created to help reduce the environmental impact without compromising quality and functionality. The EVO products are all 61% recycled, 98% recyclable and 98% repairable (Wow). The front part is made from recycled plastic, and the aluminium heat sink comes from scraps of aluminium shavings left over from our factory, from all the bollards etc, that we produce’.

The LED chip can be replaced by removing a couple of screws, (the replacement would be purchased directly from Linealight).

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More broadly the company has a great sustainable approach to the way it works. It operates a waste oil recovery system, avoids were possible soapy water (using instead special MEWA MULTITEX® oil-trapping mats) has reduced common detergents, and  uses short supply chains. Its no wonder that this product won Gold award for the ‘Build Back Better ‘circular economy’ energy category in 2023.

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Having recently worked on a few exterior jobs, the importance of low luminance products to meet the stringent design standards for bats and obtrusive light etc, is becoming more and more important. Bega has a neat solution that ticks all the right boxes in this respect, in the form of its Ultradark optic. I spoke to the effervescent Rob Hall who explained all.  

‘We use a special coating on the inside of some of our products, as part of a system called Bega Ultradark Optics. This coating is sprayed on, (even though it’s not actually a paint) and is unique, in that the coat has hemispherical reflectances below 1%, which stops interreflections and stray light.

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Secondary beams? Well, it does away with all that; you just don’t get any reflections from the light source. The result is that we have a product that is very comfortable to look at, and there is a lot of demand for these products anywhere where glare control and light spill is important, such as in some exterior lighting installations. We have also incorporated this Ultradark technology into our interior downlights’

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Panzeri is an Italian company based in Monza, and were showing an interesting product called ‘Bow’ a light that really utilises the possibilities born from the linear LED. Best used in the hands of a creative designer, I would suggest, to explore the possibilities available from this flexible product, I spoke to Paolo Comacchio, the companies group sales director who told me a bit more about it.

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‘The product we have bought here today, new for the show is called ‘Bow’. It’s an extruded thermoresistant plastic with two copper bars inside (48volt), where the product can be used as one complete length of light or fragmented into different sections of 50cm each. The architect, designer can either have the whole 3m length illuminated, or select different sections of it. The product comes with two or three metal ‘boxes’ that help you to curve the shape should you need as a free design element, or for example following an arch or geometry in a room. Its available in many colour temperatures with the led 9.5W giving 1000lumens of indirect emission, Leed certification is available. The extruded plastic is 85% recycled and 100% recyclable. This product is of great use when you have some ceiling restrictions, concrete, or a reduced ceiling depth’.

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Across the shows I have attended for The Light Review over the last few years, there has definitely been a growing trend towards standalone table lights, and the ‘Sister Light’ from Zafferano was definitely one of the better examples I had seen, with its high IP rating and smart lighting approach.

Available in two versions, the larger being 328mm and ‘Sister Light Mini’ standing 150mm tall, the lights are part of the collection ‘Lamps a Porter’ which also includes a wall lamp and lamp with a peg. The light has a cool feature that allows it to be controlled using the Zafferano lighting application, so you can set all the light levels accordingly, on their own or as part of a group. Imagine how useful that would be in a restaurant setting, you could highlight the customers’ table to guide him or her to the right spot, dim the lights to suit the time of day, nice !

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The organisers of LiGHT23 seem to be a happy bunch.

They report:

• attendance was up by 43% against last year’s inaugural show.
• there were 4776 attendees
• 150 high-end intenational lighting brands exhibited
• design experts provided more than twenty talks and presentations
• A new [d]arc decorative lighting space introduced high-end brands, exhibiting for the first time.

Paul James, [d]arc media Managing Director said: ‘We are thrilled with the overwhelming response to the show. The massive increase in exhibitor and visitor numbers confirms that London, and the UK, has been craving a trade show that serves the lighting specification market.
With an almost 100% rebook rate from exhibitors during the show itself, this is just the beginning of LiGHT Expo in London and we’re excited to see what the 2024 edition will bring, as we expand further into the Business Design Centre.’

From that press release we can embrace two exciting facts: LiGHT24 will be back at BDC – and we’re all happy to hear that – and the show will be even bigger than this happy adventure.

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LiGHT24 takes place on 20th and 21st November 2024.