VELUX: The Latest Architecture and News

There is a general agreement that our built world should become climate neutral. But, how construction will have to change to make this future a reality is still uncertain. At the same time, the economic and social framework for construction and especially for housing construction are changing. Components, building products, and building systems are being reused, and this is accompanied by a new ethic of design and construction and a new aesthetic of architecture.

ArchDaily and VELUX have joined forces to provide you with an exclusive coverage of the highly anticipated UIA World Congress of Architects 2023. Watch the unveiling of the next International VELUX Award and a captivating presentation showcasing the past winners.

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Daylight is core to realizing healthy and sustainable buildings, but its dynamic nature and the complex ways in which it interacts with its environment make it a difficult discipline to master. The new version of VELUX Daylight Visualizer makes climate-based daylight modeling more accessible than ever, empowering architects to make the best use of daylight anywhere in the world.

Daylight shapes the experience of a space like no other material and is a fundamental aspect for designing healthy and sustainable buildings. Good daylighting design can improve the health, mood, cognitive abilities and productivity of the occupants at home, school or work while reducing the energy consumption of buildings. 

Daylight Visualizer makes it easy to take informed decisions about architectural and daylighting strategies in your projects, and to evaluate compliance with requirements for daylight performance in building regulations and building rating systems.

Daylight and Architecture, a global knowledge-sharing initiative focusing on exploring the limitless potential of daylight in architecture, has announced the new series of ‘Daylight Talks’.

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Every second year, the VELUX Group invites students of architecture to participate in the International VELUX Award competition on the theme “Light of Tomorrow". Since its launch in 2004, more than 10,000 students from more than 800 schools from all regions of the world have participated in the competition.

The competition invites students to explore the role of daylight in architecture. The aim is to encourage and challenge students of architecture, and to create a deeper understanding of daylight as an ever-relevant source of energy, light and life.

For the celebratory 10^th edition in 2022, the students will develop their projects in one of the two categories: ‘Daylight in buildings’ or ‘Daylight investigations’. 

As part of Velux's Build for Life online conference, ArchDaily will be hosting the Daylight in Architecture Sessions. Today, Cristian Izquierdo Lehmann, Jose Fernando from Natura Futura, and Rick Joy will discuss how to leverage buildings to benefit the environment and improve the quality of life.

VELUX Group reveals The Build for Life concept aimed at creating sustainable communities and built environment through affordable, socially-oriented designs and new housing models, healthy indoor climates and the use of low-impact materials. Developed together with EFFEKT, MOE engineers and Danish construction company Enemaerke & Petersen A/S, the concept provides architects and city planners with a “compass’ for navigating the sustainability imperatives of the moment while encouraging the design of healthier living places.

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Seeking to actively respond to the climate-related challenges of the 21st century, VELUX's sustainability strategy includes a series of measurable steps towards positive change as we focus on how buildings can help solve global challenges with sustainable solutions and practical actions. One of these steps is Build for Life, a pioneering, multidisciplinary initiative launched in 2021 to help connect people and the planet through better building design.

The Build for Life 2021 Conference will be held on November 15-17, and is an open invitation to join a global conversation on how buildings can benefit the environment and improve the quality of life for people around the world.

Praksis Arkitekter has won the competition to transform an old timber warehouse for VELUX Group in Østbirk, Denmark. As the company's largest production site, it will be transformed into a best-in-class innovation center. The existing wooden building was originally inaugurated in 1995 as a warehouse. The new rebuilt building will house most of the product development that VELUX Group is doing, which today is spread across the country and abroad.

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On the UNESCO International Day of Light, The Daylight Award announces its 2020 Laureates: Juhai Leiviskä for his architecture, Russell Foster for his research, and this year, exceptionally, The Daylight Award is also given to Henry Plummer for his lifetime achievement.

'While laureate Russell Foster studies the science behind the effect of light on human behaviour and physical and mental wellbeing, laureates Juha Leiviskä and Henry Plummer approach the effects and implications of daylight intuitively through architectural design, photographic expression and verbal mediation of these human responses. Whether elucidating the neural effects of light or invoking the poetic essence of light, the laureates of the 2020 Daylight Award demonstrate to us the power of natural light,' states the jury.

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Danish company VELUX began with a belief in building healthier homes. Created over 75 years ago by Villum Kann-Rasmussen, the manufacturer has now expanded around the world, with millions of people getting fresh air and daylight through their products. With recent events on the COVID-19 pandemic, Lone Feifer and Peter Foldbjerg of VELUX explore how architects and designers can find better ways to work at home and create healthy living spaces.

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On the occasion of the 8th VELUX Daylight Symposium held on October 9 and 10 of 2019 in Paris, we talked with David Briggs, CEO at The Velux Group, to learn about the present and future of the company. We wanted to know how they address innovation and new technologies – especially through the biennial event – to improve quality of life for people who incorporate Velux's products and services into their homes and other spaces in more than 46 countries around the world.

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Humans spend almost 90% of the time indoors; that's approximately 20 hours a day in closed rooms and 9 hours a day in our own bedrooms. The architectural configurations of these spaces are not random - that is, they have been designed or thought of by someone, and are at least slightly "guided" by the conditions of their inhabitants and their surroundings. Some people inhabit spaces specially catered to their needs and tastes, while others adapt and appropriate designs made for someone else, perhaps developed decades before they were born. In either case, their quality of life may be better or worse depending on the decisions that are made. 

Understanding the importance of carefully designing our interiors, particularly through the lens of access and enjoyment of natural light, was the purpose of the 8th VELUX Daylight Symposium, held on October 9 and 10 of 2019 in Paris. This year, more than 600 researchers and professionals attended and reaffirmed the importance of natural light, presenting a series of concrete tools that could help quantify and qualify light by designing its entry, management, and control with greater depth and responsibility.

The BLL Awards for Architecture & Design comes from “Bringing light to life” which is the slogan of VELUX world brand for roof windows, which distribute daylight and fresh air into buildings through the roof. The idea of the Awards is to popularize good architecture, from architects and designers across countries in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region, which demonstrates the effective distribution of daylight into buildings and the utilization of the space under the roof elements. It is a platform to showcase the work and products of architects and designers to a global audience. This year is the 6th edition of the BLL Awards, and is now open for entries. Seven countries from the CEE region are included – Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Turkey.

Aiming at bringing science, architecture practice and the building industry closer together, VELUX two knowledge-sharing and best-practice platforms will for the first time be held back to back. More than 500 scientists, architects, developers, urban planners, building owners, professional housebuilders, government representatives, and building professionals from North America, China and Europe will convene in the historic site Le Carreau du Temple of Paris, 9 and 10 October, to introduce and exchange their latest research and building practice but also discuss how healthy buildings can be a cornerstone in everyday living today.

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The International VELUX Award 2018 sought to highlight the work of architecture students around the globe who challenge the use of daylight in built environments. The award, titled “Light of Tomorrow,” was launched in 2004 and is awarded biennially for creative interpretation, exploration, and investigation of daylight in built environments. This year, the winners were selected from over 600 submissions.