[d]arc room delivers in new home
(UK) – [d]arc room exceeds expectations at Old Truman Brewery with 4,000 visitors, up from 2,000 in 2018.
Taking place during London Design Festival, [d]arc room had its very own hall at the Old Truman Brewery, home to London Design Fair, where it continued with its unique exhibiting concept as well as having educational workshops and live streaming.
Organised by [d]arc media, the team behind arc and darc magazines and the [d]arc awards, in collaboration with creative consultants Light Collective, the exhibition showcased the most up-to-date solutions in lighting, a must for anyone involved in lighting specification.
London Design Fair regularly attracts close to 30,000 visitors across four days of exciting and creative content. Over half the visitors were designers or architects with retailers also making up a big part of the audience. [d]arc room brought a welcome contingent of lighting designers to the show as well as educating non-lighting professionals about the benefits of lighting design.
Paul James, director of darc room, commented: “I was delighted with the way [d]arc room was received this year with its integration into London Design Fair. The show has gone from strength to strength since the inaugural event in 2017. Our substantial increase in both exhibitors and visitors prove to us that there is a need for a dedicated lighting design event at London Design Festival.”
The lighting specification exhibition had 75 exhibitors, eight workshops and a unique live stream of lighting talks.
James continued: “The mix of creative, small stands where no one company dominates the event, together with strong education content in a great location really appeals to the designers and architects that attended this year’s show. We will aim to develop the concept further as we move forward with the [d]arc room event.”
darc room : workshops and darc room : live, curated by the event’s creative consultants Light Collective, were very popular with packed audiences enjoying the unique format of the educational content.
darc room : workshops, sponsored by Phos, had a host of detailed, interactive sessions and panel discussions featuring topics such as Sustainability and Design, Women in Lighting, Acoustic Lighting, Wellness in Design, Daylight and Experience and the Beauty of Bespoke. It even had a Sunday matinee of lighting films for visitors to enjoy.
Speakers for this year’s [d]arc room: live programme, sponsored by Delta Light, included Moritz Waldemeyer; Magdalena Gomez, Elektra; Lora Kaleva, BDP; Sacha Abizadeh, WSP; Clementine Fletcher-Smith, Speirs + Major; James Poore, JPLD; Neil Tomkinson, SBID; Heinrich Böhm, JOI Design; Kael Gillam, Nulty; Lee Painter, BDP; Paulina Vilalobos, DiaV, and Jo Littlefair, Goddard Littlefair.
Delta Light also hosted a residential lighting micro conference featuring a group of leading architects and lighting designers to share their knowledge on residential lighting, and how best to light a home with a room by room approach.
Also on show, Speirs + Major presented its virtual reality Third Age of Light – a VR experience through which the studio envisions the lighting of the future, predicting how our cityscapes will look in 2050.
Manufacturer participants were Acclaim, AC Special Projects, Adolights, Airstream, Archilume, ARIA, Arkoslight, Astro, Avivo, AxaLight, Barthelme, Bert Frank, B Light, Blond, Buzzi Space, Cameron Design House, Casambi, CLS, Delta Light, Dyson, Edison and Mansfield, Enttec, ELR, EPS / Elumeros, ES-System, Feelux, Filix, Forge, formalighting,, Fritz Fryer, Gap Lighting, GDS, IBL, Insta UK, Kreon, LED iBond, LED Ltd, LensVector, LightGraphix, Lightly Tech, Linea Light Group, Lite, Lucenti, Lumenpulse, Lumino, Luminus, Madrix, Megaman, Mesh, Mode Lighting, Nicolaudie, NJO, Nulty Bespoke, Original BTC, Orluna, Osram, Performance In Lighting, Pharos, Phos, ProLED, Pulsar, Radiant, Recolight, Reggiani, Sagitario, Seoul, SLV, Soraa, Specialty Lighting, Speclight, Targetti, Technilum, TLS, Traxon, Truelux Group, Tryka, UFO, unonovesette, Vexica, Vode, Whitegoods. And Xicato
The show is supported by CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers), BIID (British Institute of Interior Design), IALD (International Association of Lighting Designers), ILP (Institute of Lighting Professionals), SLL (Society of Light & Lighting) and SBID (Society of British and International Interior Design).
