by Christina Augustesen

How can we design buildings that stimulate our senses, follow our human needs and allow us to live in balance with nature? Buildings, which combine the use of daylight and artificial light and use the “double dynamic” potential of controlling daylight and artificial light, might stimulate our senses and human needs, as well as enhance the feeling of living in balance with nature.

Christina Augustesen presenting “Architecture for the Senses” at the 6th VELUX Daylight Symposium in London.

The Sense […]

FACULTY BUILDING IN ODENSE

Photography: Adam Mørk and Daniel Blaufuks

An entire university under one roof. This was the idea that guided architects Krohn & Hartvig Rasmussen in the 1970s when they created the campus of the University of Southern Denmark on the outskirts of Odense. The new Technical Faculty building, designed by C.F. Møller at the edge of the campus 40 years later, is based on similar principles. Measuring 110 × 65 metres – the size of a football pitch − […]

Photography by Adam Mørk

Architectural design, ecological aspirations and a high standard of education enter into a close symbiosis in the Austrian federal state of Vorarlberg. For the young people who use it, the classrooms and corridors of the energy-efficient timber building offer plenty of room for movement and an abundant supply of daylight.

56 ‘daylight pyramids’ will illuminate future slam dunks

The secondary school in Klaus conceived by Dietrich | Untertrifaller set standards in this regard as long as 14 years ago. […]

By Koen Steemers | Photography by Thekla Ehling

To truly enhance human well-being, building design needs to move beyond optimising single parameters such as temperature and humidity, to more holistic approaches that take their cues in health-supporting human behaviours. Based on the Five Ways to Well-Being that have recently been established by scientists, this article outlines some essential rules of thumb that designers can follow in order to nudge building users into a healthier way of living.

Koen Steemers presenting “Architecture for […]

by Michael Pawlyn

Most people now accept the case for sustainability and many wonder how the debate will move forward over the next few decades. Some commentators have asserted that biomimicry will be one of the main design tools that facilitate the shift from the industrial age to the ecological age of mankind. This rapidly emerging discipline draws on a source of solutions that have benefited from a 3.8 billion year research and development period.

In this talk Michael Pawlyn will describe how […]

Interview by Shaun Weston Nystrom

Jens Christoffersen is the lead organizer of the VELUX Daylight Academic Forum and joined the VELUX Group in 2010, where he works in the Daylight, Energy and Indoor Climate group (DEIC), Stakeholder Communications & Sustainability.

What is the VELUX Daylight Academic Forum and what does it offer PhD students?

For the 4th time, the VELUX Daylight Academic Forum will provide an opportunity for PhD students to receive constructive feedback on their daylight research while establishing and strengthening their […]

By Vellachi Ganesan | Photography by Thekla Ehling

“The most important benefit of daylight in buildings, in my perspective, is the connection of the inside to the outside. We are human beings, we are a part of nature, and we have been, in a very basic way, conditioned by natural light and the natural landscape. Daylight, as well as access to views outside, is an essential part of our health – biologically, psychologically and spiritually.”

Our relationship with light has been an important […]

By Jakob Schoof | Photography by Michael Nicholson

At first glance, the houses that Peter Stutchbury has designed throughout the 35 years of his career remind us of the modernist villas to be found elsewhere in the warm temperate climates of the world, such as in California or along the Mediterranean Coast. With their immaculate detailing and stripped-back construction, they may well seem like typical lifestyle choices of affluent, post-materialist, cultural elites. Yet Stutchbury’s architecture is, to a large extent, informed […]

by VELUX GROUP

Registration is now open for the main international forum for exchanging knowledge, viewpoints and visions on daylight – the 7th VELUX Daylight Symposium at Café Moskau in Berlin on 3-4 May 2017.

Click here to register

This year, attendees will interact with research, practice and policy under the theme, “Healthy & Climate-Friendly Architecture – from knowledge to practice.” The symposium will focus specifically on the use of daylight –to create buildings that promote human health and wellbeing, and secondly to minimize […]