(UK) — Transforming light and sound into a sensory interpretation of climate volatility, this year’s light art installation creates a space for reflection. Visitors attending LiGHT 26 will be welcomed to experience Take a Moment, a striking new immersive light art installation designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). Presented in close collaboration with formalighting, with Display Graphics serving as the installation build partner and commissioned by [d]arc media, the project promises to be a central highlight of the upcoming exhibition.
Taking place at the Business Design Centre in London across the 18th and 19th of November, LiGHT 26 will once again demonstrate the creative possibilities of light far beyond its conventional functional applications. The exhibition invites visitors to experience an ambitious installation that explores the complex relationship between nature, transformation, and the increasingly fragile balance of our global environment.
Take a Moment actively invites visitors to consider the vast and powerful forces that shape the world around us, creating an immersive experience that heightens awareness of the natural systems that humanity so often takes for granted. Rather than relying on traditional informational displays, the installation utilizes a sequence of atmospheric environments distributed across three distinct chambers. Through this spatial design, the project reinterprets our changing climatic conditions via an evolving, dynamic interplay of light, sound, and space.
Each of the three chambers investigates one of nature’s fundamental forces: the sun, water, and wind. Together, these elements explore the delicate equilibrium of the natural world, presenting these familiar environmental factors through cycles of growth and destruction, stability and disruption, peace and volatility.
The conceptual scope of the installation mirrors the dualities inherent in these natural forces. Sunlight can nourish, illuminate, and sustain life on Earth, yet its intensification can result in severe drought, extreme heat, and, increasingly, devastating wildfires. Similarly, water can refresh and sustain life, while rising sea levels and changing weather patterns result in disastrous flooding. Even a gentle breeze can escalate into a destructive hurricane under volatile atmospheric conditions.
These profound transformations are brought to life within three immersive environments specifically titled Drought, Flooding, and Hurricane. In each chamber, carefully orchestrated light and sound build and recede through repeating, rhythmic cycles. By choreographing these cycles of compression and release, darkness and illumination, as well as silence and sound, light acts simultaneously as both a physical material and a compelling storyteller. Meanwhile, sound extends the experience far beyond the physical boundaries of each individual chamber. Moments of deep tranquillity are deliberately contrasted with moments of heightened tension, creating an overall experience that is at once captivating and deeply unsettling.
At its core, Take a Moment reflects on the ongoing climate crisis not through cold statistics or data points, but entirely through a powerful sensory experience. By immersing visitors directly within escalating environmental conditions, the installation asks us to contemplate the complex relationship between human behavior and the fragile systems that sustain life on our planet, highlighting the increasingly precarious boundary between environmental harmony and instability.
ZHA has partnered with formalighting to bring Take a Moment to life, drawing directly on the lighting manufacturer’s extensive expertise in innovative, precision-engineered lighting solutions. This partnership helps translate the sophisticated architectural vision of ZHA into an immersive sensory experience. Through the creative application of light, the installation explores changing intensities, shifting atmospheres, and the delicate relationship between illumination and darkness. It brilliantly demonstrates how modern lighting technology can extend far beyond basic functionality to become an integral, narrative-driving part of the architectural experience.
Together, ZHA and formalighting bring architecture, light, and sound into a profound dialogue, creating an environment that actively encourages visitors to pause, reflect, and deeply engage with the world around them. Display Graphics joins this collaborative team as the official build partner, providing essential support for the physical realization and construction of the installation at LiGHT 26.
This year’s installation proudly continues LiGHT’s strong tradition of showcasing the creative and experiential potential of light through ambitious, large-scale projects. It follows in the footsteps of previous celebrated installations, including Intra-Spectrum by Frankie Boyle in 2024 and Re: Vision by Speirs Major Light Architecture in 2025.
For the many visitors expected to attend LiGHT 26, Take a Moment offers a rare and valuable opportunity to engage with light in a fundamentally different way. Beyond the commercial products, cutting-edge technologies, and industry conversations taking place across the wider exhibition floor, the installation carves out a dedicated space for contemplation and a deeper appreciation of how light, architecture, and the surrounding environment profoundly influence our daily perception of the world.
For those planning to attend the event, a special session has been announced. Attendees can join the conversation in the [d]arc thoughts space at 5.15pm on Wednesday, 18 November, where [d]arc media Managing Editor Helen Ankers will sit down with the ZHA design team to explore the deep inspiration and creative process behind the project. Following the Q&A session, there will be an exclusive opportunity to meet the designers in person and experience Take a Moment firsthand.
For further information regarding the installation and to register to attend the show, visitors can visit the official website at www.lightexpo.london.
