Light Middle East

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Designers showed off striking displays using light.

With support from the PLDA, Light Middle East was a chance to discover both the best products and best practice.

Of the four companion shows to the Garden and Landscaping Middle East show, the Light Middle East show held perhaps the most interest for outdoor design professionals.

Although dominated by interior lighting suppliers, there was a sizeable presence from outdoor lighting firms at the event including Spanish firm R.Ros Alguer, Italian company Grechi Illuminazione and Thailand-based Ligman Lighting.

On the back of the construction boom, demand for lighting products is skyrocketing in the region. The lighting fixtures market in the region is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of almost 7% against a global average of 4%, according to Messe Frankfurt, organisers of the show.

"An unprecedented number of lighting design talents and architects are in the Middle East either on commission executing large-scale hotel, commercial, and residential projects or consulting in a construction feeding frenzy worth an estimated US$1.46 trillion," said Eckhard Pruy, CEO of Messe Frankfurt.

"This is the best and biggest market right now. If you've got ideas, you can land them here," said Abdullah Raied, representing lighting designers C&P Lighting.

Other exhibitors agreed. "Anything related to construction is a boom industry. It's the right time. We're looking at the prospects and possibilities because it's an immense market," Vikas Sareen, business development manager of R. Ros Alguer, commented.

The conference programme running alongside the exhibition, organised by the Professional Lighting Designers' Association (PLDA), complemented the product displays with a number of lighting design seminars over the three days of the show.

Presentations including The Scope of Lighting Design, Lighting Design for Water-based Structures, and Illuminating Cities of the Future helped add a design focus to the event.

A presentation on Landscape Lighting in the UAE during the first day of the three-day event helped reignite debate as to the suitability of light emitting diodes (LEDs) for use in outdoor projects in the region, and the quality of products from Asia.

Despite a limited presence in the exhibition space of some of the larger players in the lighting industry, the event was successful in highlighting the opportunities that exist for lighting design on the back of the construction boom in the region.

As Alison Ritter, director general of the PLDA, put it: "You've got a unique chance that everything is brand new and you can use state-of-the-art technology but also state-of-the-art design, so that you can masterplan whole areas right from scratch.

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