Co-creation takes Designing with Daylight to a New Era
On 13 September, the VELUX Group, which owns the strongest brand in the building industry, and world-leading architectural firm Foster + Partners celebrated the creation of VELUX Modular Skylights. Together, they kicked off a new era of designing with daylight at an evening event at the spectacular Foster + Partners London landmark, The Gherkin.
The two companies share a passion for daylight and how it can enrich our lives and make our buildings better and more comfortable to be in. So the vision of the co-creation project was to design a sustainable solution that could bring daylight into commercial buildings, such as schools, hospitals and shopping malls, simply and easily. It is the first time for both companies that they have engaged in this kind of close working partnership.
"We feel that we have found the perfect match in Foster + Partners because daylight is es-sential to both our businesses. They also complement our technical knowledge with their experience in design and architecture. So this partnership responds to a need in the market with a solution we haven't been able to create on our own," says Jørgen Tang-Jensen, CEO of the VELUX Group.
VELUX Modular Skylights combines the VELUX Group's extensive knowledge of bringing day-light and fresh air into residential buildings through the roof with Foster + Partners' in-depth knowledge of building design and architectural needs and challenges. The result is a new way to think of commercial skylights because the modules incorporate high-energy performance, slim and elegant design and a unique modularity that break with the traditional custom-made skylight solutions of today.
"The benefit of collaboration between an organisation like ourselves and the VELUX Group is enormous. The problems we are all facing in the world cannot be solved by any one individ-ual – or, more increasingly, even one discipline like architecture. So by combining knowledge and components in the way we have with VELUX, that is a very good thing for design in the future − because we are able to achieve a lot more for a lot less," says David Nelson, Senior Partner and Head of Design at Foster + Partners.
VELUX Modular Skylights is being launched in Denmark, Sweden, the UK, Belgium, Holland and Germany in 2012, followed by France in 2013.