Holistic planning is today taken as a matter of course. This approach, however, demands for construction and lighting projects the effective collaboration of a whole range of individual specialists and trades: i.e., the interplay of architects and engineers from many and various specialty areas. These expert fields include heating, sanitary engineering, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting design, etc. Highly essential in this aspect is early inter-communication among specialists, and effective networking of the various disciplines. But the following questions must at all times be posed answered:

– Is all of this only a theoretical approach, or do we find this manner of work in practice as well?
– If not, what could be the causes of this
shortcoming?
– What could we do to arrive at more efficient work sequences, in the sense of optimization?

At light + building in Frankfurt this year, experts had the opportunity to analyze this situation and to sketch out approaches for optimization. The fair stand of the company PRO-DAY – a masterpiece of integral collaboration itself – offered a venue for experts to provide analysis and to present their perspectives for the future.

Participants in the podium discussion were:

– Professor Uwe Belzner (Prof. Dipl.-Ing.), lighting designer from Heidelberg
– Dr. Helmut Köster (Dr.-Ing.), from the company Köster + Köster Lichtplaner, of Frankfurt
– Elmar Schossig (Dipl.-Ing.), of the company Gatermann + Schossig, architects (BDA), of Cologne
– Arwid Theuer-Kock, lighting designer at the IGH Institute, in Cologne
– Dietmar Zembrot, General Manager of Zumtobel Staff GmbH & Co. KG, in Lamgo, Germany.

Responsible for the moderation of the podium discussion was: Burkhard Fröhlich, (Dipl.-Ing.), editor-in-chief of the German Construction Journal DBZ of Gütersloh, Germany.