Light+Building 2016: Luminale Preview

This lighting festival, held during Light+Building in Frankfurt, showcases light’s artistic possibilities in an urban arena.

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Artists Hartung & Trenz's installation for the Katharinenkirche church is titled “Light Diffraction.”

Artists Hartung & Trenz's installation for the Katharinenkirche church is titled “Light Diffraction.”


The eighth installment of Luminale, the lighting festival held during Light+Building in Frankfurt, will occur from March 13 – 18. Approximately 200 events will take place in Frankfurt am Main and Offenbach. The program booklet outlines all the activities. A Luminale bus allows visitors to tour the city at their own pace to view the various lighting installations and projections, tours and talks, and performances each evening during the festival.

Some of the program highlights include:

Luminale PechKucha
On Monday evening, March 14, at 8:00 p.m. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.) at the Baseler Oval, Baseler Str. 10, noted lighting designers and light artists will present during the Luminale PechKucha program.

The lineup includes Austrian artist Peter Weibel; lighting designer Kaoru Mende of Tokyo-based Lighting Planners Associates; Jean-Francois Zurawic, professor of Materials Chemistry and Nanotechnology at the University of Lyon, France; lighting designer Mark Major of Speirs + Major in London; and designer Moritz Waldemeyer from London.

“City Light” Symposium
On Thursday, March 17, from 3:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Nibelungen Platz 1, lighting designer Roger Narboni is one of the speakers participating in the “City Light” symposium.

Light designer Robin Uber's 2016  Luminale installation "Bauhaus „goes“ Mondrian" converts a transformer station into a Piet Mondrian color tapestry.

Courtesy Luminale

Light designer Robin Uber's 2016 Luminale installation "Bauhaus „goes“ Mondrian" converts a transformer station into a Piet Mondrian color tapestry.

Lighting Installations:
The artist team of Hartung & Trenz will transform the Katharinenkirche church into a light and meditation space.

Light designer Robin Uber from Cologne won the Mainova competition in 2016 and will convert a transformer station into a Piet Mondrian color tapestry. The title of the installation is Bauhaus „goes“ Mondrian.

Also on view is Germany’s largest OLED light wave. More than 1,500 OLED discs create a waterfall-like effect in the lobby of the Münstertal building on Neue Mainzer Straße 80.


OLED: Dynamische Lichtwelle, is the largest OLED installation in Germany with 1,500 OLED discs.

Courtesy Luminale

OLED: Dynamische Lichtwelle, is the largest OLED installation in Germany with 1,500 OLED discs.

Luminale is the signature event associated with Light+Building. On the occasion of Luminale 2014, Architectural Lighting spoke with Helmut M. Bien, director and owner of Westermann Kommunikation and curator of Luminale since 2000, about the event and its impact on the city and region. Read the article here.

About the Author

Elizabeth Donoff

Elizabeth Donoff is Editor-at-Large of Architectural Lighting (AL). She served as Editor-in-Chief from 2006 to 2017. She joined the editorial team in 2003 and is a leading voice in the lighting community speaking at industry events such as Lightfair and the International Association of Lighting Designers Annual Enlighten Conference, and has twice served as a judge for the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City Section’s (IESNYC) Lumen Award program. In 2009, she received the Brilliance Award from the IESNYC for dedicated service and contribution to the New York City lighting community. Over the past 11 years, under her editorial direction, Architectural Lighting has received a number of prestigious B2B journalism awards. In 2017, Architectural Lighting was a Top Ten Finalist for Magazine of the Year from the American Society of Business Publication Editors' AZBEE Awards. In 2016, Donoff received the Jesse H. Neal Award for her Editor’s Comments in the category of Best Commentary/Blog, and in 2015, AL received a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Media Brand (Overall Editorial Excellence).Prior to her entry into design journalism, Donoff worked in New York City architectural offices including FXFowle where she was part of the project teams for the Reuters Building at Three Times Square and the New York Times Headquarters. She is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and she earned her Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.

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