Header: Messe Frankfurt GmbH / Jacquemin
Light + Building returns in 2026 for another edition, running from 8 to 13 March 2026 at Messe Frankfurt in Germany. Strictly attended by professionals, this is the one place where architects, designers, engineers, and others from the industry can compare notes and see where the future stands in real time. To give you a scale of this trade fair, the last edition in 2024 saw 2,169 exhibitors and more than 151,000 visitors.
Engineering and light in the spotlight
This year’s theme, “Be Electrified – Electrifying Places. Illuminating Spaces,” gives us a good idea of where the focus will be: on one side, electrical infrastructure, energy management and connected building systems; on the other, lighting as a design discipline inside and outside buildings.
Three strands have already set themselves as crucial for visitors: “Sustainable Transformation – Rethinking Energy”, “Smart Connectivity – Intelligence for Connected Systems”, and “Living Light – Creating Atmosphere with Lighting”. There, specialists will explore and explain what’s new in renewable energy integration and energy management, building automation and IoT tools, and lighting systems.
A stroll through the Halls
On the lighting side of the event, Halls 3.0, 5.0, 5.1 and the Forum will focus on technical lighting, while Hall 3.1 is where the more design-oriented lighting will be present. Hall 4.0 will cover urban outdoor lighting, and Hall 4.1 will explore emergency and safety lighting. Hall 6 will lean into decorative lighting for residential and hospitality settings, and Hall 8 will get into components, control gear and interfaces for smart lighting. There will also be an “Asia Selection” section in Halls 10.1–10.3, where many Asian manufacturers will be present.
Crossing over into building services and electrical technology, Halls 12.0 and 12.1 will be all about electrical installations and energy infrastructure, including EV charging stations, energy management systems, decentralised energy supply, power distribution equipment, cables and photovoltaic components. Halls 11.0 and 11.1 will focus on building automation and networked energy management, and Hall 9.0 will bring together electrical engineering, home and building automation and security systems.
A rich list of participants
A lot of major brands are expected to make an appearance, with lighting names including Signify (Philips Lighting), Osram, Zumtobel, Trilux, XAL, Opple, Casambi, Ledvance, Targetti and Bega. On the building tech side, big names include ABB, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Legrand, Gira, Jung, Busch-Jaeger, KNX and Wago. This list shows that two of the pillars of the fair are networking and innovation, so visitors will be able to see product launches and new tools while engaging in interesting conversations and filling up their contact books.
The programme
One of the headline exhibitions for 2026 is “The Living Light”, curated by Lichtvision Design, which has been presented as a design-focused walk-through (by way of a green pathway) made up of four environments: Home, Education, Workplace and Communication.
Alongside that, the ZVEH E-House is a life-size model home that will present smart and energy-related systems in one place, including smart lighting, voice-controlled devices, photovoltaic panels, battery storage, EV charging and heat pumps. It is here that visitors will be able to discover what exactly smart homes are and how they translate to real life.
The AI Lounge will give visitors access to simple AI tools that prove that one doesn’t need programming knowledge to use the latest technology on day-to-day tasks such as time tracking, workflow optimisation, project planning or client communication. On a more technical note, the BTGA-Forum will be running daily lectures and discussions on topics like digitalisation in building services, smart buildings, current building energy legislation and strategies to attract young talent.
The Mainz University of Applied Sciences will present a “smart building real-world laboratory” live, including a demo of a digital twin that combines building automation data, IoT sensors and cloud analytics into a single model. Mid-week, Licht.de Day will host presentations on topics including lighting management, digitalisation in lighting and refurbishing older installations.
The Design Plaza will be home to a series of spaces directed at design, as the name suggests. Here, visitors will be able to attend the Architonic DAAily Live Talks, curated by Simon Keane-Cowell, which will host live interviews with architects and designers. Awards ceremonies will also be found here: the Design Plus Award and the IALD International Lighting Design Awards, with the latter choosing the fair as its venue for the first time in 2026.
In the fields of sustainability and policy, the 13th International Conference on Improving Energy Efficiency in Commercial Buildings and Smart Communities (IEECB&SC’26) will be held in the Portalhaus at Messe Frankfurt, paired with the European ESCO Conference.
