Urban lighting a new challenge for industry
The exhibition and symposium are opportunities for manufacturers and visitors to find out what is popular in the market. This year the focus is on urban lighting.
'Urban lighting is an important element for the security of a city. Once fulfilling this role, urban lighting contributes to revealing the stories and the heritage of a city,' said Alain Guilhot, a world-famous lighting designer, president of Architecture Lumiere, a French corporation specialising in artistic lighting, and member of Association Francaise de I'Eclairage and of Lighting Urban Community International.
Mr Guilhot will be one of the speakers at the symposium. He has worked on several urban lighting projects in France, Europe, and around the world, from the illumination of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, to the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Zheng Yang Men Gate in Beijing, the lighting plan for Cannes, France and Rabat in Morocco, and the National Theatre in San Jose, California.
'Efforts paid to the lighting of a place can be measured by its capacity to boost tourism,' he said. 'For example, the Lighting Festival in Lyon in France can attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.'
While lighting played a significant role in the beauty of a city, Mr Guilhot said that the selection of actual technics, such as eco-friendly LED lighting, needed to be emphasised, as this showed respect for the well-being of our planet.
He said that while the industry explored how urban lighting could be used to highlight the architecture and heritage of a city, excessive use should be avoided.
Lucia Wong, group manager of trade fairs at Messe Frankfurt, an organiser of the lighting show, agreed.
'Those were the days when we only focused on the functionality of lighting products,' she said. 'We are now looking for ways to promote a better living environment through urban lighting.'
Taking Hong Kong as an example, Ms Wong said that a lot could be said about the adoption of urban lighting for the impressive skyline of Victoria Harbour.
'Urban lighting is important in the way that it helps animate and personalise a city or a building,' she said. 'The variety of lighting from the glittering buildings alongside Victoria Harbour is successful in making Hong Kong a charming city.'
Ms Wong said that too much lighting would simply spoil the physical appearance of a city. 'You can imagine that Victoria Harbour would look too 'busy' if lighting were used without good planning.'
Compared with the United States and Europe, Hong Kong is just at the developing stages of urban lighting. There is a way to go for members of the lighting industry, architects and the government to work together on this up-and-coming lighting trend.
'We believe that our topic on urban lighting at the symposium will allow mainland and Hong Kong industry members to exchange ideas with their foreign counterparts,' said Ms Wong.
