People are at the centre in the international symposium on daylight
When the VELUX Group gathers together almost 300 participants involved in daylight for its fourth Daylight Symposium at Lausanne on 3-5 May 2011.
The central issues will be to ensure our productivity, ability to learn, health and circadian rhythms in buildings.
The effect of daylight on people will be in the spotlight during the VELUX Group's fourth Daylight Symposium, entitled Daylight in a Human Perspective, for almost 300 researchers, architects and other participants in the field.
We in Europe today spend 80-90% of our time indoors and studies have shown that if we receive too little daylight exposure in the course of a day, we risk ending up with poor health, reduced quality of sleep and significantly disturbed circadian rhythms. A series of research results indicates that low exposure to daylight can lead to poor health and well-being for much of the population. This is manifested in deteriorating quality of sleep, de-pression, fatigue and reduced social skills.
Daylight is important to our circadian rhythms
For decades, daylight in buildings has been used to enable us to go about our daily activities unhindered, to reinforce the architecture of a room and to grant us a view onto our sur-roundings – and to support our well-being. However, the latest studies show that daylight is vitally important to our health and well-being.
"Nowadays, we can measure precisely the daylight condition in a room but we do not know, with the same degree of certainty, how much daylight is needed to fix our daily rhythm and safeguard the health and well-being of the occupants – or when it is needed. The Daylight Symposium is a step along the way to helping the VELUX Group ensure that the latest in-ternational findings are shared," says Per Arnold Andersen, architect and Head of Daylight, Energy and Indoor Climate in the VELUX Group.
In the course of the two days, the symposium will provide scientific updates on the interna-tional efforts being made to determine the effects of daylight on building users. Examples of architecture will be presented, along with instances of how users experience that architec-ture.
"It is clear that architects and engineers must take into much greater account the daylight potential in a building at a far earlier stage in the planning process than they do today; in-deed, daylight should play as central a role in the design as technical installations and be planned in the same way," says Per Arnold Andersen.
Daylight and health
The central theme of the fourth symposium will be Daylight in a Human Perspective. A number of renowned experts will be presenting their latest research into how people are influenced by daylight and what doses we need to meet our visual and non-visual (biologi-cal) needs.
New European standard for daylight
Also taking part are the technical experts involved in the drafting of the forthcoming – and very first – European daylight standard. Besides holding a workshop, Peter Raynham, Chairman of the EU working group will speak about what we can expect of the content of the new standard, scheduled to be ready for publication in 2013.
"As a manufacturer of roof windows, we in the VELUX Group are closely linked to the design and construction of buildings. We very much want to give a helpful push to the development of better living spaces, with daylight, fresh air and a comfortable indoor climate," says Per Arnold Andersen.
The Daylight Symposium is held every second year with the purpose of establishing an in-ternational platform for the development of knowledge, views and visions. It is a part of the VELUX Group's vision to take an active part in the continued debate among professions on the quality of daylight in our buildings. Read more at www.thedaylightsite.com.
About the VELUX Group
The VELUX Group creates better living environments with daylight and fresh air through the roof. The VELUX product programme contains a wide range of roof windows and skylights, along with solutions for flat roofs. The Group also supplies many types of decoration and sun screening, roller shutters, installation products, products for remote control and thermal solar panels for installation in roofs. The VELUX Group, which has manufacturing companies in 11 countries and sales companies in just under 40 countries, represents one of the strongest brands in the global building materials sector and its products are sold in most parts of the world. The VELUX Group has about 10,000 employees and is owned by VKR Holding A/S, a limited company wholly owned by foundations and family. For more details, visit www.velux.com.