European Students Create the Light of Tomorrow

New technologies and new trends challenge tomorrow's architects.

New technologies and new trends challenge tomorrow's architects. A new prestigious award focusing on the use of daylight in architectural design encourages architect students from 40 European countries to create innovative projects with conscious daylighting design.

VELUX, the world's leading manufacturer of roof windows, has announced an international award for architect students. The award wants to pay tribute to daylight and runs for the first time this year under the theme 'Light of Tomorrow'.

Students from more than 450 European architect schools have been invited to participate in the International VELUX Award. A jury counting respected architects will evaluate the submitted projects and attractive prize money will be granted to the winning students and their teachers.

"Our goal is to get in touch with the future generations of architects in Europe and to position our brand as more than roof windows. We would like the architects of tomorrow to connect VELUX with values like better living conditions, daylight, fresh air, high quality and value for money", says Michael Pack, member of the jury and general manager of VELUX Germany.

VELUX has more than 60 years of experience in creating better living environments by providing daylight and fresh air. According to VELUX, daylight is crucial for the health and well-being of people who work or live in a building. However, in the course of recent years there has been a setback in the use of daylight in design prioritizing. By launching the International VELUX Award, VELUX wants to set focus on daylight in architectural design.

"We want to establish a creative framework for working with good daylighting design", says Michael Pack. "We picked the theme 'Light of Tomorrow' very carefully in order to inspire vision and creativeness."

The Award is approved by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE). Both are non-profit organisations and greatly respected internationally.

An international jury counting some of the world's most respected architects will evaluate the submitted projects. The members of the jury are: Glenn Murcutt, Australia; Farshid Moussavi, England; Craig Dykers, Norway; Ole Bouman, The Netherlands; Ahmet Gülgönen, France; James F. Horan, Ireland and Michael Pack, VELUX Germany.

Registrations are due 5 May, 2004 and entry deadline is 31 July. Prizes will be announced at an award ceremony in September, 2004. The International VELUX Award will be organised every second year. The next edition will take place in 2006.