Experiencing light and innovation: Zumtobel Group introduces hybrid campus concept and opens Light Forum

Press Release

Dornbirn, 19 November 2020

01

Experiencing light and innovation:

Zumtobel Group introduces hybrid campus concept and opens Light Forum

• New space for light and innovation on an area of 4,000 square metres
• Sustainable investment in the future of the company at its founding location
• Launch of comprehensive campus concept based on experience, knowledge transfer and co-creation
• Full brand spectrum to be experienced on site as well as digitally
• Space concept in cooperation with renowned architecture firm Snøhetta

Dornbirn, Austria - On 19 November 2020, the Zumtobel Group invited to the digital opening of its new Light Forum on an area of 4,000 square metres at its home location in Dornbirn, Austria. At the same time, the company launched the Zumtobel Group Campus, a comprehensive concept with top-class formats, including keynotes, webinars and talks on light and related contemporary topics and future issues for customers, partners and employees. With the extensive hybrid approach of the campus concept, the company is opening up - both digitally and physically - to its customers and partners around the world.

With the new Light Forum in Dornbirn, the Zumtobel Group is making a sustainable investment in the long-term success of the lighting group. The revitalisation of the company's old factory hall has created a unique architectural space where the strong brands of the Zumtobel Group can present their comprehensive lighting expertise as well as the latest developments and technologies. Through the reutilisation of the old building, Zumtobel's founding location in the heart of Dornbirn, the company has also enlivened the adjacent regional urban space.

"We are delighted that, with our Light Forum, we have created a unique place to experience light, one where we can showcase our full brand spectrum and potential as an international lighting group on a permanent basis. The Light Forum marks the beginning of the hybrid campus concept, which we will use to open the company up to a global audience," says Zumtobel Group CEO Alfred Felder. "Our new Light Forum is a sustainable investment in the success of the Zumtobel Group. As a company deeply rooted in the region, it is also very important to us to contribute to the sustainable utilisation of existing buildings and to the further development of the regional economic area by revitalising the old factory hall."

New campus concept with the Light Forum: physical and digital hub

The Light Forum provides the physical platform for a comprehensive campus concept with top-class formats. It is a hub where customers and partners, the general public and Zumtobel Group employees can meet to exchange experiences, enhance knowledge and create new things together based on the co-creation principle - either digitally or directly on site. It is a meeting point which encourages personal encounters inspired by a variety of themes.

Light and architecture: Cooperation with Snøhetta

The idea of transforming the old factory hall into a new Light Forum - thus making a conscious decision not to build up the green area - was developed by Herbert Resch, Head of Corporate Architecture Zumtobel Group: "Light is our building material. Creating worlds of experience with light, that is the profession of the Zumtobel Group brands. It is always about the dynamic interaction of light, architecture and people." Taking these intertwined components into account, the dynamic space concept of the new

Light Forum was created in close cooperation with the Innsbruck studio of the renowned Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta.

Light Forum as a place of interaction

02 A central element of the spacious hall is a generous staircase made of wood. It gives the space a structure while at the same time serving as a meeting point and atrium, for example, for keynotes or talks. The cubes for product presentation set further accents. The design of the old factory hall as a co- creation space - inspired by the company culture of Snøhetta - allows dynamic utilisation of the open space. This flexibility and mobility in utilisation characterise the new Light Forum as a place of interaction which can respond to a wide range of requirements and allows for the development of lighting solutions together with the customer on site.

"With the new Light Forum as an open space of exchange and inspiration, the Zumtobel Group once again underlines its role as an innovative player in the lighting industry. The decision to make the old factory building the architectural centre of the campus idea also redefines the relationship to the city and the public. This vision not only shows how companies can reposition themselves but also how they can meet their social responsibility," says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founding partner of Snøhetta.

"The use of buildings changes just as our working culture changes. In the generous space of the adapted factory hall, we can hold creative workshops with our customers, or publicly accessible art events can take place. Visitors can still feel the history and atmosphere or the original place," says Patrick Lüth, Managing Director of the Innsbruck Studios of Snøhetta.

Space for cultural initiatives

With an art and culture space as part of the new Light Forum, the Zumtobel Group will also open up to external exhibitions in the future. Cultural initiatives are intended to strengthen the social context and the company's dialogue with the public as well as the immediate urban environment. The exhibition content can also be completely independent of the core theme of light.

Light and innovation: global novelty Zumtobel Spectrum technology

Zumtobel has developed a ground-breaking technology by which LED lighting resembles as closely as possible natural daylight as perceived by the human eye. The LED colour spectrum is altered in a very specific range of wavelengths where the eye is particularly susceptible to visual, emotional and biological stimuli. The Zumtobel Spectrum technology helps the pupil to stay in its natural size. This reduces the amount of light entering the eye, and the strain on the retina is decreased: the eye thereby remains relaxed and does not tire so quickly. In practice, this marks a new path in the artificial lighting of interiors, and better reconciles the human need for daylight with the increasing amount of time spent in artificial environments. A patent is currently being filed for this global technological novelty, and the first Zumtobel products are already being equipped with this new technology.

Innovation for outdoor lighting: Thorn NightTune technology

Outdoor lighting can work magic. It can optically open up urban spaces after dark, make residential areas feel safer, or guide people through parks. However, it must also live up to the responsibility to protect dark skies and animals. The focus is not only on the amount of light emitted at night, but also on the properties of that light. NightTune is a new technology by Thorn that mixes warm and cool LEDs. By dimming the two groups of LEDs up and down separately, colour temperatures ranging from a warm 2200K to a moderate 3000K can be obtained, at different levels of brightness. The indirect version of Thorn's new Plurio post-top luminaire is the first product that can be equipped with NightTune. It meets the requirements of modern cities while at the same time respecting those who share these spaces - both people and animals.

Photos:to mention copyright or photographer

03

New space for light and innovation on an area of 4,000 square metres: the entrance area with enclosed art and

culture space. Left:Copyright Zumtobel | Right:Photographer Faruk Pinjo

In the cubes for product presentation the Zumtobel Group brands show their full spectrum. Left:Photographer

Matthias Rhomberg | Right:Photographer Faruk Pinjo

The central element is a generous staircase made of wood. It gives the space a structure while at the same time serving as a meeting point and atrium. The new Light Forum provides the physical platform for a comprehensive campus concept with top-class formats. Left:Photographer Faruk Pinjo | Right:Photographer Matthias

Rhomberg

04

Left:With the transformation of the old hall into a new light forum, a conscious decision was made not to build up the green area. Photographer Faruk Pinjo

Right:One point of attraction in the new Light Forum is the light experience space: the light art installation by James Turrell invites viewers to follow the fascination of light and allows them to experience light as pure matter. The entire inner body of the room leaves an impression on the viewer. It is only through light that the space is defined. Light gives the room its architecture while at the same time transforming it, making it seem dimensionless and boundless.

Photographer Matthias Rhomberg

Info box
Area:	approx. 4,000 square metres
Completion:	March 2020 (Phase 1)
Investment:	approx. EUR 8 million at completion in March 2020
Concept:	Innsbruck studio of Snøhetta on the initiative of and in cooperation with the Zumtobel Group
	Corporate Architecture Team

Information

This press release and the accompanying high-resolution images can be downloaded at: https://z.lighting/en/group/news-insights/?category=company

Campus website for future formats can be visited here: https://z.lighting/en/campus

Media Contact

Zumtobel Group Press Team [phone] [e-mail]

Media Contact Snøhetta

Peter Zöch, Communication & Business Development

Snøhetta Studio Innsbruck GmbH

[phone] [e-mail]

Anniversary year 2020: Zumtobel's history began 70 years ago

In 2020 the Zumtobel Group will not only celebrate the opening of its new Light Forum at its founding location, but also the 70th anniversary of Zumtobel. Walter Zumtobel founded 'Elektrogeräte und Kunstharzpresswerk W.

05 Zumtobel KG' in 1950. The company started as a family business 70 years ago producing ballast for the then new fluorescent lighting technology. Today, the company is an internationally operating lighting group with roughly 6,000 employees and ranks among the leading suppliers of innovative lighting solutions, lighting components and the related services in Europe.

"My father started to work with light in 1950. 70 years later, we still want to show how light shapes the world around us. We rely on technological expertise and innovations to drive our company's success. At the same time we have to create worlds where light is an experience, where our products tell a story. We need to emotionalise our products

- and this is exactly where our new Light Forum comes into play," says Jürg Zumtobel, son of founder Dr. Walter Zumtobel and former Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Zumtobel Group, from which he retired in May 2020.

You can find more information here.

About Snøhetta

Snøhetta was founded by Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers in Oslo in 1989 as a collaborative architectural and landscape workshop. Today, Snøhetta is an internationally renowned practice of architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, product and graphic design, with more than 250 employees and offices in Oslo, New York, San Francisco, Innsbruck, Paris, Hong Kong and Adelaide. The Zumtobel Group and Snøhetta share a long-standing partnership and have cooperated on several Zumtobel showrooms all over Europe, for example the Showrooms in Oslo, Norway, Malmö, Sweden and Vienna, Austria. The 2014 art edition of the annual report of the Zumtobel Group titled "Living the Nordic Light" and designed by Snøhetta was another joint project. In addition, Kjetil Thorsen was the Chairman of the Zumtobel Group Award jury in 2017.

About the Zumtobel Group:

The Zumtobel Group is an international lighting group and a leading supplier of innovative lighting solutions, lighting components and associated services. With its brands, acdc, Thorn, Tridonic and Zumtobel, the Group offers its customers around the world a comprehensive portfolio of products and services. The Group's know-how about the effects of light on people, acquired over decades, forms the basis for the development of innovations and for accessing new fields of business. In the lighting business, the Group, with its Thorn and Zumtobel brands, is one of the European market leaders. Through its lighting technology brand, Tridonic, the Zumtobel Group plays a leading role worldwide in the manufacture of hardware and software for lighting systems (LED light sources and LED drivers, sensors and lighting management). The Zumtobel Group's service offering is one of the most comprehensive in the entire lighting industry, including consultation on smart lighting controls and emergency lighting systems, light contracting, design services and project management of turnkey lighting solutions, as well as new, data-based services focused on delivering connectivity for buildings and municipalities via the lighting infrastructure. The Group is listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange (ATX Prime) and currently employs a workforce of around 6,000 employees. In the 2019/20 financial year, the Group posted revenues of EUR 1,131.3 million. The Zumtobel Group is based in Dornbirn in the Vorarlberg region of Austria. For further information, please visit z.lighting/group