News and press releases - VELUX Media Centre | VELUX Group

VELUX opens RenovActive

Wed, 18 May 2016 13:28:00 +0200

Following a seven-month renovation project, the VELUX Group today officially opens its latest demo building – the RenovActive house – in Brussels, Belgium. The aim is to demonstrate that climate renovation based around the Active House principles of energy efficiency and indoor comfort can be affordable.

RenovActive, an innovative answer to the challenges of renovation in Europe
Almost half of Europe’s buildings were built between 1945 and 1980, and it is estimated that 90% of residential buildings today will still be in use in 2050. It is therefore essential to renovate the aging European housing stock.

RenovActive offers a simple, innovative and affordable solution to this challenge. Using existing techniques and materials, the RenovActive concept offers an example of how to transform European housing into healthy and sustainable living space, and provides a renovation concept that can be replicated on a large scale.

Origins of the concept
Between 2009 and 2011, the VELUX group invested in the construction of six experimental demo homes across Europe, as part of the Model Home 2020 project. This project provided an understanding of what was possible in terms of meeting future needs of sustainable accommodation, using current techniques and materials. The RenovActive project takes advantage of the many lessons learned from this experience in order to meet current renovation challenges.

To implement RenovActive, VELUX joined forces with "Le Foyer Anderlechtois", a social housing association which owns 3,740 housing units in Brussels. An 80m² semi-detached house built in the 1920s and in an advanced state of disrepair has been completely renovated, to offer its new inhabitants high-quality accommodation. The renovation has been carried out within the budgetary framework of Brussels Social Housing. Between now and 2018, le Foyer Anderlechtois plans to renovate 86 houses based on the RenovActive concept.

Renovation + Active House = RenovActive
The RenovActive concept is based on the Active House principles, designed to balance comfort (through a healthy indoor climate with a maximum amount of natural light[1] and optimal ventilation[2]), energy efficiency and respect for the environment.

The RenovActive concept comprises seven replicable renovation elements:

Installation of windows on the front of the house and the roof in order to provide maximum daylight.
Positioning of a stairwell lit by two skylights in the centre of the house to provide natural light on every floor as well as "stack effect" ventilation.
Installation of a hybrid ventilation system, combining natural and mechanical ventilation.
Installation of exterior solar protection for optimal thermal comfort.
Creation of an effective thermal envelope by insulating the exterior, with new roofing and vertical windows.
Installation of a simple and comfortable heating system, comprising underfloor heating on the ground floor and radiators for the upper floors.
Construction of an extension to gain floor space on the ground floor.

Timeline of the project
RenovActive opens its doors on 18 May 2016 and is available for visits for a period of one year. In spring 2017, a family with three children will occupy the house for two years. During this period, energy, heat and water consumption, as well as the interaction of the family with the house, will be monitored and analysed.

About RenovActive partners
The architectural design of the house was entrusted to the architects ONO Architectuur. The implementation and monitoring of works was undertaken by the Troubleyn company.

VELUX joined forces with various commercial partners, who provided products for the renovation of the house. The Saint-Gobain group, Renson, Grundfos, Somfy and Wienerberger enthusiastically supported the RenovActive project[3].

With regard to furnishing the home, Kvik and De Kringwinkel partnered with RenovActive for the kitchens and some of the interior furnishings, respectively.

[1] For more information about natural light within the RenovActive please look under the downloads at Natural light is invited in the RenovActive house (in French)

[2] For more information about ventilation within the RenovActive please look under the downloads at Healthy living starts with a quality habitat demonstrated by the RenovActive home (in French)

[3] For more information about The RenoveActive house partners:

https://renovactive.velux.be/en/the-house/partners/

VELUX on COP21: A step in the right direction

Mon, 14 Dec 2015 14:13:00 +0100

For the first time, the Paris conference saw buildings on the agenda of COP negotiations. As they account for some 40 per cent of European energy consumption and CO2 emissions, it makes eminently good sense to incorporate buildings in the efforts to reduce both.

90 per cent of the existing building stock in Europe will still be in use in 2050. And 75 per cent of those buildings are energy inefficient. The VELUX Group has constructed a series of experimental buildings throughout Europe to show that the tools needed for environment-friendly construction are already available. Next April, the Group will complete an example of energy renovation in a social housing estate in Belgium.

The VELUX Group’s core business areas are Western Europe and the USA. But is sees significant potential in former Eastern Europe, where the need for home renovation is much greater than in Denmark and other countries in Western Europe. Less than 5 per cent of the company’s sales are made in Denmark.

Model Home 2020 Receives top industry accolade at British Homes Awards

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0200

The VELUX Model Home 2020 project emerged as the winner of the Innovation Award for Building Technology at the prestigious British Homes Awards (BHA) held on Thursday 1st July in Central London.

The two zero carbon homes were selected for the accolade by a panel of industry experts. The judges commended the VELUX scheme for its original use of building technology and the exciting way it captures natural daylight and ventilation to minimise energy consumption. The properties were hailed as an exemplary benchmark for the design of future sustainable homes.

The Model Homes semi-detached design, to be built in Kettering, Northamptonshire, have been designed by another of the BHA's winners, HTA Architects, who received the coveted title of Architect of the Year. They are intended to offer an example of sustainable homes that are both appealing to the consumer while remaining affordable and easily replicable for the mass house building market and aim to deliver a 70% reduction in carbon emissions with the remaining 30% of carbon offset by allowable solutions.

Kevin Brennan, Head of Sustainability at VELUX Company Ltd, comments: "At VELUX, we strongly believe that it is possible to build bright and well ventilated zero carbon homes that the consumer will want to live in and that the mass house builder can reproduce simply and profitably. We are delighted that our Model Home 2020 project – a pioneering and ambitious bid to transform the way the industry perceives sustainable homes - has been recognised by the industry in these prestigious awards."

About Model Home 2020
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by VELUX as part of our strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is our vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air. The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles frequently referred to as "active house". The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate-neutral.

'Model Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. They are six of eight projects financed by VKR Holding A/S the owner of VELFAC A/S, VELUX A/S, Sonnenkraft, WindowMaster and several other companies in the building sector. The two demo projects in Denmark are built as a partnership between VELUX and VELFAC.

In VELUX we believe that one experiment is better than a thousand expert views. Each building must reflect and respond to the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built. The houses will be open to the public for 6-12 months after completion and then sold. Each house will be monitored during occupancy to learn how the experiments turn out in real-life conditions. The two buildings in Denmark, Home for Life and Green Lighthouse (in Aarhus and Copenhagen) are finished, those in the UK, Austria, and Germany will follow in 2010 and the house in France in 2011.

www.velux.com/modelhome2020/

The Pastour family selected to test the Maison Air et Lumière experiment

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0200

For the next year the Pastour family will stay in Maison Air et Lumière testing how well the designs perform in terms of both energy and living comfort so that the projections of the house can be compared with the real-life experiment.

Fabrice (35), Samantha (33) and their two children, Rayan (7) and Ismaël (3), will move into Maison Air et Lumière at the end of August to test its comfort. Fabrice is a bus driver with the Paris public transport system (RATP) and Samantha is the head of a business specialising in e-commerce. Both are mad about new technology.

The couple, who rent an apartment in the Paris area, are on a mission to build a modular, light and low-energy house. Testing the Maison Air et Lumière is the ideal opportunity for them to compare the options and flesh out their project.

"The living quality in a house means a lot to us. Air quality is particularly important because of the allergies our family has (to dust, mould, ozone), and one of our sons is asthmatic. We would like a light-filled house to 'keep our spirits' up, even in winter. Having an ecological and self-sufficient house is an absolute must for us," emphasises the family.

Studies by CREDOC in France have shown that what families really want in the home is comfortable living and that the best way of encouraging the general public to save energy is by simplifying access to good practice rather than providing financial incentives. The project's mission is to define, as precisely as possible and in the context of an experiment, the ideal living conditions for the occupants of a low-energy house in all seasons.

Michel Langrand, Managing Director at VELUX France comments:

"Building energy-positive homes – the challenge set by the new French regulations on thermal insulation (RT 2020) – is becoming a reality. The next challenge we face is defining what comfortable living in these houses actually means. With this real-life experiment we want to play our part in helping define the home of the future."

The experiment consists of making a comparison, over the period of a year, between the targets set when the house was built and what a family consumes and experiences. Any differences from the forecast energy performance and living comfort will then be analysed.

The experiment's results will be shared with building professionals and made available to scientific and political groups so that they can understand consumer expectations and prac-tices when drafting energy policy.

About Model Home 2020
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by the VELUX Group as part of our strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is our vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air.

The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles frequently re-ferred to as 'active house' (www.activehouse.org). The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate neutral.

Model Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. The two experiments in Denmark were built in a partnership between the VELUX Group and VELFAC. Each of the Model Home projects was implemented in close cooperation with local and regional partners, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers.

In the VELUX Group, we believe that one experiment is better than a thousand expert views. Each building must reflect and respond to the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built. The houses will be open to the public for 6-12 months after completion and then sold. Each house will be monitored during occupancy to learn how the experiments turn out in real-life conditions.

The houses in Denmark – Home for Life in Aarhus and Green Lighthouse in Copenhagen – have been in use for nearly three years, those in Germany and Austria opened in the autumn of 2010, and those in the UK and France followed in 2011.

Experiment 6: Maison Air et Lumière
Maison Air et Lumière is a new generation of active home that puts the quality of life of its inhabitants at the centre of its environmental approach. The unique features of the house lie in intelligent use of the sloping roof to combine well-being and energy efficiency. The archi-tectural concept is based on different roof pitches that increase its ability to capture sunlight, making it an energy-positive home.

The Maison Air et Lumière creates a healthy indoor environment.
The house was designed by Nomade Architectes and developed in cooperation with the Cardonnel Ingénierie, E.T.H.A. and industrial partner Saint-Gobain, Aldes and Umicore (VM zinc). WindowMaster and Sonnenkraft supplied products for the house.

Maison Air et Lumière is the sixth of six buildings in Europe to be constructed by the VELUX Group as part of the Model Home 2020 experiment. It was completed in October 2011.

Read more at:
http://www.velux.com/Sustainable_living/Model_home_2020/Maison_Air_et_Lumiere/default.aspx

First results from Sunlighthouse

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0200

The first personal experience report of the temporary residents shows that the expectations for the innovative building concept have been completely fulfilled.
Sunlighthouse is allowing the VELUX Group to provide evidence that carbon-neutral, resource-saving home-building is not incompatible with good architecture and outstanding habitation quality. The first personal experience report of the temporary residents shows that the expectations for the innovative building concept have been completely fulfilled.
Sunlighthouse in Pressbaum, lower Austria, is part of the Europe-wide VELUX Group initiative called Model Home 2020. Its purpose is for six demonstration projects – two in Denmark and one in the UK, France, Germany and Austria – to show how energy-efficient home-building can be combined with minimal carbon emissions and a healthy, comfortable living environment.
Following a costly advertising and selection procedure, in March this year Yasmin and Ludwig Dorfstetter, together with their sons Johann (2) and Alfred (4), moved into Sunlighthouse to put the house through its paces under real-life conditions. The first measuring results for the months of March and April are now available.
The living project, which is scheduled to run for 12 months, is being scientifically supported by a team of experts from Danube University Krems and the Austrian Institute for Healthy and Ecological Building (IBO). In a comprehensive monitoring programme, the total energy consumption is being measured and compared with the energy production.
The influence of user behaviour on real-life everyday consumption is also being evaluated. In the process, the scientists are paying particular attention to architectural functionality, daylight quality and the relationship with the outside environment. The indoor climate, thermal comfort, energy efficiency and building automation, as well as the functionality of the house technology, are also under the microscope. The latter, in particular, presented the test residents with a new challenge.
"At first, it was a bit strange dealing with the house technology. But it doesn't take long to figure out how the house and all the technology work. It's a bit like the first few days using a new mobile phone," said Ludwig Dorfstetter.
Initial findings
Sunlighthouse scores well in the recently-completed initial assessment: the individual measuring results are very promising and generally in line with the values from the building simulation and the advance calculations. There were marginal deviations in the daylight measurements, but these are all within the normal deviation range.
On the other hand, it is remarkable that, so far, the solar installation has been able to meet the entire hot-water heating requirement and even produce surplus heat.
A similar picture emerges with regard to energy consumption. By using high-efficiency appliances and dispensing with energy guzzlers like tumble driers and extractor hoods, the energy consumption was set very low in the planning stage. Thanks to the careful behaviour of the family, it was actually possible to meet the forecasts. Additional consumption was mainly due to the technical appliances used in the monitoring, e.g. the flat screen and touch-screen. In other words, this was "energy for the science" and consumption that would not apply in normal household operations.
Thanks to the seasonal moderate temperatures, the photovoltaic panels generated more energy than the house consumed. However, experts caution against drawing premature conclusions as a successful outcome for total energy consumption and energy production can only really be determined at the end of the one-year monitoring period.
All the same, one thing can be established in the start phase of the project; that the innovative building concept is not only an exemplary energy saver, but also a genuine energy provider – and in more than one respect.
The residents are reporting a change in sleep requirements. "Whether it's due to the natural wooden surfaces, the better air provided by the controlled ventilation or the daylight concept, we don't know. But we are all getting by on less sleep." However, this unexpected gain in energy is not always appreciated by every resident of the house – especially when the children are charging around the house early in the morning at the weekend, fully refreshed after a good night's sleep. Shortly after moving in, the parents found that not only they but also the children were generally much more happy and cheerful. Though not scientifically measurable in values or indicators, this is one of the most significant changes. The bright, light-flooded rooms and natural surfaces are obviously creating a living atmosphere that is having a positive effect on the mood and general well-being of the residents.
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, in-stallation 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.

Model Home 2020 selected as one of the world's 100 most sustainable projects

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0200

Model Home 2020, created by the VELUX Group, has been acclaimed for its contribution to sustainable buildings of the future. The project has just been included in the newly-created list, Sustainia100, of the world's 100 most sustainable projects.
Sustainia100 is an international list of 100 current and sustainable initiatives from all over the world. Each exemplifies the innovation and inspiration behind sustainable solutions in ten different sectors: energy, buildings, cities, resources, foodstuffs, fashion, health, education and IT. The intention of the Sustainia100 list is to encourage and motivate ordinary people, trade and commerce, and politicians; and to use existing projects to provide an overview of the building bricks and solutions that are avail-able, here and now, to create the sustainable society of the future.
Model Home 2020 – source of inspiration for the future
With its appearance on the Sustainia100 list, Model Home 2020, comprising six demo buildings in five European countries, will help demonstrate to the world how we are capable of constructing sustainable buildings of the future with products that exist today:
"The six buildings in the Model Home 2020 project were designed and built to show one way we can meet the EU's energy legislation demands for 2020 without compromising a good indoor climate based on masses of daylight and fresh air. By being part of Sustainia100, our vision and results will be high-lighted globally as one of the hundred most sustainable projects in the world and thereby act as a source of inspiration for future projects," says Lone Feifer, Project Director of the VELUX Group.
Sustainia – sustainable society of the future
Sustainia100 is part of Sustainia, a model of sustainable society of the future based on existing green solutions and technologies. It was created by the think tank Mandag Morgen (Monday Morning) together with several international champions of climate issues, including former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, and EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, as well as numerous international private companies, one of which is the VELUX Group.
On 20 June 2012, the Sustainia100 list of all the one hundred sustainable projects was made public at the world summit Rio+20 at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro.
Read more about Sustainia and Sustainia100 at: http://www.sustainia.me/solutions/ and about VELUX Model Home 2020 at: http://www.velux.com/sustainable_living/model_home_2020?cache=0.
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, in-stallation 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.

Model Home 2020 nominated for EU Commission's sustainability award

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:00:00 +0200

VELUX Model Home 2020 is one of 25 projects nominated for this year's Sustainable Energy Europe Awards, to be presented in Brussels on 19 June 2012 during EU Sustainable Energy Week. All the short-listed projects have been initiated as European partnerships and projects from 14 EU member states, and are divided into five categories: Communicating, Consuming, Learning, Travelling and Living, with Model Home 2020 being nominated for the latter.

"We have been working on the Model Home 2020 experiment for the last four years, with the goal of studying how energy efficiency can be combined with a good indoor climate based on daylight and fresh air. The latest measurements show that we can build houses with current products that meet the energy demands of 2020," says Lone Feifer, Project Director in the VELUX Group.

Sustainable energy results
Winning projects are examples of outstanding efforts made in the field of sustainable energy. They will serve as inspiration for other parties involved with energy in Europe and elsewhere. The Model Home projects are founded on the Active House principles, which state that buildings should give more than they take in a synergetic interaction between energy, indoor climate and the environment. The nomi-nation makes a valuable contribution to putting the focus on the Active House principles as the launch pad for the sustainable building of the future.

The five winners will be named at the presentation event, SEE Awards Ceremony, in the presence of EU Energy Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger. The presentation, which will take place in Brussels on 19 June 2012, will be the climax of EU Sustainable Energy Week. Every year, hundreds of organisations take part in this week-long event centred around sustainable energy in the EU; it is the most important event in energy efficiency and sustainable energy in Europe. Active House Symposium will be held in the same week.

Read more at: activehouse.info/join-us/active-house-alliance/symposium-seminars.

The EU Commission's Sustainability Award
The EU Commission's Sustainable Energy Europe (SEE) Awards were presented for the first time in 2006 as recognition of outstanding European projects in the field of renewable energy and energy effi-ciency with a high level of impact and replication potential. Behind the scenes are more than 1,200 promoters from the 27 EU member states and a number of other countries outside the EU; so in the six years they have existed, the awards have had the support of a strong network that includes public authorities, private companies universities, NGOs and sector organisations.

Read more at www.eusew.eu/awards-competition.

More information on the Model Home project is available at: www.eusew.eu/component/see_projectview/?view=see_projectdetail&index=2&tagId=-1&countryID=-1&catId=5&pageNum=0&projectid=7963 and at: www.velux.com/modelhome2020.

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, in-stallation 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.

Contacts
For further information, please contact:
Ghita Borring, VELUX Press, press@velux.com,
+45 45 16 48 08 / +45 51 14 08 87.

The six demo buildings that comprise the VELUX Model Home 2020 experiment were built in the period 2009-2011 in Denmark, Germany, Austria, France and the UK.

VELUX Maison Air et Lumiére launched

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0200

The completed VELUX Maison Air et Lumière was unveiled today at an opening ceremony in the Paris Commune, Verrières Le Buisson.

The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, the Mayor of Verrières Le Buisson and the project partners.

The unique feature of the house lies in the intelligent use of the pitched roof to combine well-being and energy efficiency. The roof has a variety of intelligent pitches, increasing its ability to harvest sunlight and contribute actively to the energy performance of the house. The orientations and inclines have been chosen and calculated to optimise the yield from the thermal solar collectors and photovoltaic tiles. The roof becomes a fifth active facade, regulating the indoor climate and optimising the admission of light and air, as well as being an aesthetic architectural feature. Because it uses renewable energy, Maison Air et Lumière is energy positive – producing more than it consumes – and CO2 neutral.

The architectural interplay of the roof pitches brings the maximum amount of light into the house from above through the clever combination of the different-sized roof windows in each room providing a large area of glazing.

The different roof pitches allow the interior of the house to be arranged in a variety of spaces, using intermediary levels to create individual or communal living areas. Routes through and around the house have been carefully thought out to cater for people with restricted mobility.

Maison Air et Lumière is based on a modular architectural concept of the pitched roof. The modules can be combined as desired. The house can be adapted to suit different geographical, climatic, urban and budgetary situations while still upholding the principles of comfortable living and energy performance. Looking at the type and number of modules alone, one could imagine designing small or big houses, single houses or urban estates, and homes for the city or the country to the same principles. The interior spaces can be adapted according to needs, desires and changes in family life.

"This house has been built with the support of partners who are committed to and aware of the challenges of ensuring a comfortable living environment in positive-energy buildings. The house will be a pleasant living environment – one that people want to live in – thanks to the quality of its space, natural light and location. Ultimately, the best compliment we could pay to all this technology is to make it so discreet and invisible that people get back in touch with the fundamentals – air and natural light," says Michel Langrand, General Manager of VELUX France.

Maison Air et Lumière will now be open to the industry for six months, before becoming the subject of post-occupancy evaluation for one year. The results will be fed back to the industry to help influence future positive-energy building design.

Maison Air et Lumière is the final experiment in a series of six buildings that make up the Model Home 2020 project.

The house was designed by Nomade Architectes and developed in cooperation with the Cardonnel Ingénierie, E.T.H.A. and industrial partners Saint-Gobain, Aldes, Umicore, Somfy and Eternit. WindowMaster and Sonnenkraft supplied products for the house.

Read more about Maison Air et Lumière at: http://www.velux.com/sustainable_living/model_home_2020/maison_air_et_lumiere

About Model Home 2020
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by the VELUX Group as part of our strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is our vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air. The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles frequently referred to as 'active house' (www.activehouse.org). The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate-neutral.

Model Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. The two experiments in Denmark were built in a partnership between the VELUX Group and VELFAC. Each of the Model Home projects was implemented in close cooperation with local and regional partners, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers.

In the VELUX Group, we believe that one experiment is better than a thousand expert views. Each building must reflect and respond to the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built. The houses will be open to the public for 6-12 months after completion and then sold. Each house will be monitored during occupancy to learn how the experiments turn out in real-life conditions. The houses in Denmark – Home for Life in Aarhus and Green Lighthouse in Copenhagen – have been in use for two years, those in Germany and Austria opened in 2010 and those in UK and France opened in 2011.

Six unique CO2-neutral houses in five EU countries

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0200

When the sixth full-scale experimental building opens in France next week, the VELUX Group will have completed its Model Home 2020 project, based on a vision for CO2-neutral buildings with a high level of liveability.

For the last two years, the VELUX Group has developed and tested five buildings following a strategy to take an active part in designing sustainable buildings. All Model Homes demonstrate how it is possible to build CO2-neutral houses with the materials we have today, without comprising indoor climate and comfort.

"If we can duplicate this demonstration to other buildings, we will be able dramatically to decrease CO2 emissions from buildings, which account for almost 40% of total energy consumption in Europe," says Michael K. Rasmussen, Senior Vice President of the VELUX Group.

Model Home 2020 is a part of the VELUX Group strategy to take an active part in developing future sustainable buildings that are attractive places to live in with plenty of daylight."We believe we have produced a viable alternative model for future CO2-neutral homes that will be popular with the homeowner. So based on the experiences and monitoring of the houses we have begun talks with house builders and architects to obtain their feedback on the possible use of this model going forward," says Michael K. Rasmussen.

The first two houses opened in Denmark in 2009. The first was a single-family house, Home for Life, which produces more energy than it consumes thanks to solar thermal heating, heat pumps and low-energy windows; the next was Green Lighthouse, the first public CO2-neutral building in Denmark. It acts as a lighthouse for CO2-neutral public construction work and is a unique textbook example of public-private partnership.

While the Austrian Sunlighthouse also features a new build single-family house, the German LichtAktiv Haus illustrates a different approach to the challenge of carbon neutrality. Through an innovative modernisation strategy, this project has transformed a 50-year-old traditional semi-detached house into an appealing home with maximum liveability and optimum energy efficiency.

In the UK, two CO2-neutral houses have, in their own way, addressed the dual challenges of energy design and liveability. Similarly, the final house, Maison Air et Lumière, in France will constitute a new generation of active house designed with the residents' quality of life in mind.

All houses are monitored and occupied by test families for the first year. This provides a range of valuable data and experiences of the houses' performance and how the design is perceived in real life. These data are currently being collated while the post-occupation monitoring will provide further insight into the homes' level of success.

About Model Home 2020
Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by the VELUX Group as part of our strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is our vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air. The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles frequently referred to as 'active house' (www.activehouse.org). The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate-neutral.

Model Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. The two experiments in Denmark were built in a partnership between the VELUX Group and VELFAC. Each of the Model Home projects was implemented in close cooperation with local and regional partners, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers.

In the VELUX Group, we believe that one experiment is better than a thousand expert views. Each building must reflect and respond to the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built. The houses will be open to the public for 6-12 months after completion and then sold. Each house will be monitored during occupancy to learn how the experiments turn out in real-life conditions. The houses in Denmark – Home for Life in Aarhus and Green Lighthouse in Copenhagen – have been in use for two years, those in Germany, Austria and UK opened in 2010 and 2011, and France will follow in October 2011.

VELUX Group generates new knowledge about sustainable living in buildings

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0200

Leading experts will explore opportunities and make recommendations on how we can ensure green growth and at the same time enhance the liveability and quality of life in buildings.

"Take Lead" is organised by the international alliance Green Growth Leaders. The ambitious goal for Green Growth Leaders is to show the way towards a green world economy and a sustainable community of tomorrow. As a strategic partner, the VELUX Group wants to show how sustainability, quality of life and financial growth go hand in hand.

"To grasp the opportunities requires a mindset where you see how the products and solutions we have today can be used to provide a better indoor climate and quality of life in buildings, while making the building environment friendly and sustainable in the long term. It is this way of thinking that the VELUX Group wants to spread and develop together with the leading experts in the world. We believe that when we share ideas, best practices and experiences we will achieve a result greater than the sum of the components. Knowledge grows when shared," says Lone Feifer, Strategic Project Director of VELUX Model Home 2020 at the VELUX Group.

Buildings are an important piece of the sustainable puzzle of potentially enormous significance since 40% of the world's energy consumption is used in buildings. Lone Feifer adds:

"In the western world we spend 90% of our time indoors – yet 30% of our buildings don't have a healthy indoor climate. So when we talk about releasing the energy potential in buildings we also need to discuss how we can improve both the liveability and the environmental sustainability of our building mass."

The workshop is one of seven that look into the potential of a specific area of green growth and sustainability. The purpose of the workshop is to share cases and experiences of sustainable building and discuss the possibilities, to map the social, economic and environmental potential and to identify actions that can unleash that potential.

The workshop has three main pillars:

Liveability: Mark Vacher, Assistant Professor, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen will talk about homeliness.
Cost/benefit: Wolfram Trinius, Founder of Buro Trinius will lead the discussion about the Life Cycle Cost and Life Cycle Analysis of a building.
Innovation: Youssef Hamadi, Senior Researcher at Microsoft, will talk about The Smart Buildings Project. Apart from the key speakers, every session has a panel with experts in the field.The conclusions of the workshop will be a whitepaper that will map the potentials and be part of the next day's conference. Here Yvo de Boer, Special Global Adviser Climate Change and Sustainability KPMG, Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG, John Zysmann, Professor at Berkley, and Connie Hedegaard, EU Commissioner for Climate Action among others will take the discussion further. The overall output from Take Lead will be The Copenhagen Manifesto. The Manifesto will be part of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro.

Time and place:
12th of October 2011 9am-4pm at Osram Huset, Valhalsgade 4, DK-2200 Copenhagen N.

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.

For information about Green Growth Leaders, visit:

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Daylight and natural ventilation key to newly launched VELUX CarbonLight Homes

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0200

The design strategy of the completed VELUX CarbonLight Homes was released today as the homes were unveiled at an opening ceremony in Rothwell, Kettering, attended by Heather Wheeler MP, The Mayor of Kettering, local Councillors and the project partners.
Paramount to the design of the two zero carbon homes, which form part of the VELUX Model Home 2020 project, is that they conform to the principles of Active House, addressing the dual challenges of energy design and liveability.
They will actively promote the health and well-being of occupants, generate a sense of community and advocate a respect for the environment, as well as achieving a 70% on-site reduction in carbon emissions with the remaining 30% offset by energy efficiency improvements to existing properties elsewhere in the borough.
Project partner, HTA Architects, has made innovative use of building technology, natural daylight and ventilation to minimise energy consumption and produce a healthy indoor climate that will make the CarbonLight Homes an attractive place to live. The scheme emerged as the winner of the Innovation Award for Building Technology at the prestigious British Homes Awards 2010.
Each property's demand for fossil fuel energy for heating, hot water and electricity has been reduced to a minimum. The dynamic building envelopes will regulate heat transmission throughout the day and the night. They will reduce the energy needed for cooling in the summer by employing natural ventilation and will utilise passive solar heat gains in the winter.
The homes promote energy self-sufficiency, using solar heating in combination with air-to-water heat pumps for hot water and space heating. Similarly, natural ventilation is used to cool the buildings with the triple height atriums around the stairs allowing for stack and cross ventilation. In hotter months, the homes can be opened up and cooled using purge ventilation while internal and external screening help to control solar gain and create a comfortable indoor climate. In winter, natural ventilation works alongside a Mechnical Ventilation system with Heat Recovery which recycles heat from the kitchen and bathrooms into the living areas.
Windows play an important part in capturing solar energy and regulating the temperature of the CarbonLight Homes as well as allowing high levels of daylight into the buildings. The homes have been designed with a minimum average daylight factor of 5% throughout, which is three times greater than the Code for Sustainable Homes requires, reducing the need for artificial light and promoting occupant health.
The home control systems will also help occupants reduce their energy consumption and ensure a healthy indoor climate. Windows can be opened at a pre-arranged time while a climate control system opens and closes windows and blinds automatically when the weather changes.
Keith Riddle, Managing Director at VELUX Company Ltd, comments:"We are extremely proud of the completed homes and the progress in zero carbon housing that they represent. While the industry is making headway in designing and building homes that meet our energy targets, the impact on the health and well-being of the occupants is all too often overlooked. By adopting an innovative approach to building technology, daylight and natural ventilation, our CarbonLight Homes are intended to act as a benchmark for future sustainable design in the broadest sense."
Ben Derbyshire, Managing Director of HTA Architects, adds:"The CarbonLight Homes' high average daylight factor, intelligent use of natural ventilation and dynamic building envelopes make them a truly unique residential development, which provides an indoor environment that will actively promote occupant health. Space, light and air are key ingredients in a recipe that we believe will appeal to home buyers and which we believe could be replicated more widely – bringing the good life to the volume market."
The CarbonLight Homes will now be open to the industry for six months, before becoming the subject of post occupancy evaluation for one year. The results will be fed back to the industry to help influence future low carbon housing design.
Experiment 5: CarbonLight Homes
CarbonLight Homes are the first new homes in the UK designed and built to the new UK Government definition of zero carbon. They are designed to be real homes for real people, with construction techniques suitable for use by mass house builders. CarbonLight Homes use nature in an intelligent way to maximise daylight and encourage a sustainable lifestyle. The design is open plan and incorporates high levels of daylight and natural ventilation, intended to minimise energy consumption among residents and generate a sense of community. The homes show that common-sense design can be used to create inspirational sus-tainable houses that can be easily replicated by UK housebuilders.
CarbonLight Homes were developed in a strategic partnership between Architects HTA, the VELUX Group, Kettering Borough Council, WILLMOTT DIXON and North Northants Development. WindowMaster, VELFAC, Drexel and Weiss and Sonnenkraft supplied the products for the house.
CarbonLight Homes are the fifth of six buildings in Europe to be constructed by the VELUX Group as part of the Model Home 2020 experiment. They will be completed in 2011.
Read more at: http://www.velux.com/Sustainable_living/Model_home_2020/CarbonLight_Homes/default.aspx
Press photo: From the left: Keith Riddle, Managing Director of VELUX Company Ltd.; cutting the ribbon Heather Wheeler, Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire; Jørgen Tang-Jensen, CEO VELUX Group, Ben Derbyshire, Managing Director of HTA Architects. Photo: John Robertson
About Model Home 2020Model Home 2020 is an experiment launched by the VELUX Group as part of our strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is our vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral and comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air. The project is in full accordance with the next generation of design principles frequently referred to as 'active house' (www.activehouse.org). The objective is to achieve a balance between energy efficiency and optimal indoor climate with a building that dynamically adjusts to its surroundings and yet is climate-neutral.
Model Home 2020 comprises six demonstration projects. The two experiments in Denmark were built in a partnership between the VELUX Group and VELFAC. Each of the Model Home projects was implemented in close cooperation with local and regional partners, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers.
In the VELUX Group, we believe that one experiment is better than a thousand expert views. Each building must reflect and respond to the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built. The houses will be open to the public for 6-12 months after completion and then sold. Each house will be monitored during occupancy to learn how the experiments turn out in real-life conditions. The houses in Denmark – Home for Life in Aarhus and Green Lighthouse in Copenhagen – have been in use for a year and a half, those in Germany and Austria opened in the autumn of 2010, and those in the UK and France will follow in 2011.

Experience from Green Lighthouse Shows that Users are a Decisive Factor in Sustainable Buildings

Tue, 31 May 2011 00:00:00 +0200

Green Lighthouse is Denmark's first carbon-neutral public building. As an innovation project, it is intended to provide experience for the sustainable buildings of the future. Eighteen months after the Green Lighthouse at Copenhagen University opened its doors for the first time, it has proved to be a good model for sustainable public buildings of the future, with excellent daylight conditions and indoor climate. The first experience gained is that user requirements and behavior are decisive for the sustainability of such buildings. The building has generated enormous attention and attracted several thousands of visitors, including the Russian President Medvedev and New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg. It has functioned as a place of work and a showroom for sustainable public buildings of the future at the same time. Available video includes animation clip and general views of the Green Lighthouse.

VELUX Learnings from Climate-Neutral Buildings Project - Model Home 2020

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:00 +0200

The project Model Home 2020 is a vision for climate-neutral buildings with a high degree of liveability. The project started in 2009 and involves the construction of six houses in five countries across Europe. All houses will be monitored in terms of quantitative and qualitative aspects. Energy consumption and indoor climate will be monitored and the actual results will be compared with the assumptions made in the planning process. VELUX learned that there is a distinct gap between theory and practice. The real challenge is to establish a bridge of dialogue to close this gap in order to qualify theory and thereby future practice. Available video includes edited package, soundbites and general views.

Busy year in Green Lighthouse

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0100

A year has passed since Green Lighthouse opened its doors for the first time.

The CO2-neutral building has been visited by more than 2,000 groups from near and far, including several heads of state, and has received eight national and international nominations and awards of recognition.

The students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Copenhagen University have shared the CO2-neutral building Green Lighthouse with many others than teaching staff, administrative personnel and other students in its first year of operation.

The building, literally a green beacon for CO2-neutral building and efficient public-private cooperation, has been visited by more than 2,000 groups and organisations from all over the world in the first year of its life. Even before the official opening day, Andris Piebalgs, EU Commissioner for Energy, dropped in. Since that day, other prominent visitors have included the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg when he was here for COP15, China's Minister of Trade, Chen Deming, who was given a guided tour of the building on his two-day visit to Denmark, and President Medvedev of Russia. The day after his visit, he declared that he intended to build a Green Lighthouse in Russia.

"We are delighted that there has been so much interest in Green Lighthouse around the world. Every visitor helps spread the word that it is possible to build CO2-neutral buildings with an excellent indoor climate – right here and now," says Lone Feifer, Strategic Project Manager at VELUX A/S.

Eight nominations and awards of recognition
Green Lighthouse has received eight national and international nominations and awards in its first year of use. It has also been included in two new books:

Sustainable Building 2000-2010
Round Architecture

Green Lighthouse was nominated for the Danish Lighting Award 2010, awarded in December, and received the prize for "Excellent and Beautiful Buildings" in October 2010.

"The prestigious recognitions are a pat on the back for everyone involved in building Green Lighthouse. And we are immensely proud of them," says Lone Feifer.

Today, Green Lighthouse houses a Faculty Lounge, meeting facilities and the Student Service function of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. This places great demands on its functionality as well as climate issues

The unique public-private partnership that transformed a plan into reality comprises the Danish University and Property Agency, VELUX Group, VELFAC A/S, the Municipality of Copenhagen and Copenhagen University.

The partners are still harvesting data and experience from the first year of the building's operation and expect it to be processed and analysed in the spring of 2011.

The eight nominations and awards for Green Lighthouse Award for "Innovative Cooperation" in November 2009 by the Confederation of Danish Industry. Green Lighthouse won the award for the unique fashion in which the partners worked together, resulting in a building that is CO2-neutral, healthy and comfortable.(http://bm.di.dk/Videnom/Marked/Pages/Innovationspris 2008.aspx

Nominated for Climate Cup 2010 award at World Climate Solutions. The jury's justification for the nomination was that Green Lighthouse demonstrates that it is possible to build CO2-neutral buildings without compromising on design, comfort and indoor climate. http://www.climatecup.dk/da/page/449-partnerskabsprisen-2010

Honourable mention in the category of Homes and Commercial Buildings in Building of the Year 2009, presented by the Danish building trade magazine Building.

Award for "Excellent and Beautiful Buildings" in October 2010 by the Municipality of Copenhagen. Green Lighthouse won the award not just because it is a beautiful building but also a visionary project and technological breakthrough. http://www.kk.dk/Nyheder/2010/Oktober/PriserTilSmuktByggeri.aspx

Green Good Design Award 2010. Green Lighthouse was selected from many thousands of buildings from more than 46 countries.http://www.europeanarch.eu/

Nominated among 14 buildings internationally in the category Education and Training at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona in November 2010. http://www.worldarchitecturefestival.com/winners.cfm?eventYear=2009

Endorsed and supported by the EU Commission's European sustainable energy campaign.http://www.sustenergy.org/

Nominated for the Danish Lighting Award 2010 as one of five projects.http://www.centerforlys.dk/english.php

Photos
Photos can be downloaded from www.greenlighthouse.ku.dk

VELUX Opens Austria's First Carbon-Neutral one-Family House

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100

VELUX has recently opened Austria's first carbon-neutral one-family house, Sunlighthouse, which is placed in Pressbaum near Vienna, Austria. Sunlighthouse is the third of six Model Home 2020 experiment in Europe launched by the VELUX Group as part of their strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is the VELUX vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral, comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air. The house will be opened for the public for several months, where after it will be sold. VELUX Austria will continue to monitor the Model Home 2020 experiment with the new residents in order to learn how the building performs in real life conditions. Available video includes an animation clip and still images.

The VELUX Group opens Austria's first carbon-neutral single-family house

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Europeans spend 90% of their time indoors, so it is imperative that buildings provide the best possible indoor climate to live and work in. In addition, buildings account for 40% of Europe's total energy consumption. The aim of sustainable buildings of the future, therefore, is to reduce this energy consumption considerably and meet remaining energy requirements with renewable energy sources. In order to solve these issues successfully, factors such as region, culture and infrastructure need to be taken into account.

With the Model Home 2020 project, the VELUX Group is proving that it is possible – even with today's products – to link these three aspects, while also focusing on the needs of people. Model Home 2020 is a part of the VELUX Group strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings for the future. It is the VELUX vision of how future buildings can be both climate-neutral, comfortable and attractive places to live in through daylight and fresh air.This approach is also consistent with VELUX support of the Active House concept - a vision of buildings that contribute to a healthy and comfortable life for their occupants without having a negative impact on the climate and environment. An active house is designed to work in harmony with nature, to use the energy of the sun and wind intelligently and to encourage a sustainable lifestyle.

The Austrian Sunlighthouse in Pressbaum west of Vienna is the third Model Home 2020 experiment.

Four times more daylight
The Austrian Sunlighthouse provides a daylight factor that is four times higher than the norm. The windows – both the roof windows and the vertical glazing – provide wonderful views, bring a high proportion of daylight into the home and maximise passive solar energy gains. The house is supplied with fresh air throughout the year: in colder periods, the ventilation with heat recovery guarantees a healthy indoor climate; in the spring, the house switches to automatic window ventilation. Sensors on the outside walls and inside the building control the quality of air and can open or close the windows automatically. Residents can, of course, override the automatic controls and open the windows manually. External automated sun screening prevents overheating in summer. Highly compressed panels allow the timber structure to store excessive heat. This results in the room temperature always being comfortable, even on hot summer days.

The minimal need for heating is met by a brine-water heat pump. Photovoltaic panels on the roof provide electricity. Heating domestic hot water is largely accomplished via thermal solar collectors. The result is that the VELUX Sunlighthouse produces more energy than it needs.

The house were designed by HEIN-TROY Architekten and implemented together with Danube University Krems and the Austrian Institute for Healthy and Ecological Building (IBO) as scientific partners. WindowMaster, VELFAC and Drexel & Weiss supplied products for the house.

What happens next?
In the coming months, the house will be opened for the public and experts, where after it will be sold. VELUX will continue to monitor the Model Home 2020 experiment with the new residents in order to learn how the building performs in real life conditions.

More Information:
www.velux.com/modelhome2020

Home of the future inspires daylight renovation

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0200

A welcoming atmosphere in a modern home that makes the most of daylight – that was the verdict of the Simonsen family of five after their house was given a daylight makeover.

The renovation was carried out whilst the family was living as human guinea pigs in Home for Life, the first of six buildings constructed by the VELUX Group as part of the experiment Model Home 2020 in which it is making an active contribution to the development of sustainable buildings of the future.

A year ago, the Simonsen family entered the project Home for Life, joining the ranks of the VELUX Group and VELFAC to study how a so-called active house works as a home. The house saves energy and electricity, has a comfortable indoor climate and is an attractive home that fits in beautifully with its surroundings. The objective of the building is for energy consumption, comfort and architecture to blend into functional and aesthetic harmony. Whilst the family acted as test subjects in the active house, their own traditional 1½-storey house from the '70s was given a complete daylight makeover, inspired by their time spent in Home for Life.

"Daylight levels in our own home were very different from those in Home for Life. Whilst we were living there, we became more and more conscious of how much daylight means to our quality of life.

So we decided to put the best of Home for Life into our own house and go for maximum daylight from lots of roof windows. The generous and balanced daylight combined with a 3x3-metre opening we made in the floor between the storeys gives a completely different feeling of spaciousness throughout the house," explains Sverre Simonsen.

The family elected to install no fewer than 11 roof windows in their home. A report by the Danish Building Research Institute (SBi) in 2006 established that roof windows give twice as much daylight per square metre of glass as standard vertical windows and three times as much daylight as dormer windows. The report goes on to explain that roof windows give a better distribution and variation of light influx and that low-angle installation in the roof allows direct exposure to daylight.

Daylight calculations made by the VELUX Group show that the renovation has given the Simonsens' sitting room a daylight factor of up to 7.5 per cent, which is very high. This high daylight factor and the possibility for effective ventilation have a great bearing on comfort and indoor climate, both decisive factors for well-being and health. Homes with balanced daylight also save energy as artificial light becomes unnecessary with daylight factors above 5%.

"Architect Brian Wendin worked consciously towards optimising overall daylight conditions in the family's old home. In the sitting room and kitchen-family room, daylight conditions resemble those the Simonsens got used to in Home for Life, with a window area that was 40 per cent of the floor area. What is unique about houses built according to these principles is the maximum use of sustainable resources such as daylight," says Jesper Salskov Jensen, General Manager of VELUX Danmark A/S.

Good control of indoor climate
With 11 roof windows located on both east and west sides of the house, there is ample opportunity for airing out and optimising the indoor climate. In the autumn of 2009, anthropologist Bettina Hauge carried out a qualitative study among a number of Danish homeowners that gives invaluable insight into the importance they attach to fresh air in the home. She discovered that, to a high extent, airing out is habitual.

Homeowners typically air out their homes in transition periods – that is, when they come home from work, back from holiday, at the change of seasons or when they wake up after a night's sleep. This is a pattern familiar to the Simonsens – so all their windows are programmable and can be set to open and close at particular times that suit their wishes.

"Before the daylight project began, the architect made an assessment of the need for daylight and airing out in the family's home. The result was a thorough daylight renovation that gives the family ideal control of the indoor climate. Ventilation with fresh air stimulates the feeling of a healthy indoor climate – and cleanliness and freshness help towards creating a home in balance," comments Jesper Salskov Jensen.

Apart from automated ventilation via roof windows, creating a good indoor climate also requires a suitable sunscreening system. So the Simsonsens have fitted external blinds to all west-facing windows to control heat gain, and blackout blinds in all the bedrooms to reduce heat loss in the winter months and improve insulation properties by up to 34 %.

Read more: About Home for Life, and the Model Home 2020 project

Designing roofs for well-being and energy efficiency

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 00:00:00 +0200

VELUX MODEL HOME 2020, France: Maison Air et Lumière is a new generation of active house designed with the residents' quality of life.

Maison Air et Lumière is a new generation of active house designed with the residents' quality of life at the heart of its environmental approach. Thanks to the ingenious use of its pitched roof, the house provides both a pleasant living environment and energy efficiency. The key to its architectural design is the different roof pitches that boost the building's potential to capture solar energy, turning it into a home with a positive energy balance. Air and daylight infuse the entire space, creating a healthy indoor environment.

The house, which is being built at Verrières-le-Buisson, a green oasis close to Paris, is part of the Europe-wide VELUX Model Home 2020 project. Once completed, its occupants will give feedback on their experiences of living in the house, and energy performance data will be collected as a basis for European research into the sociological and scientific aspects of sustainable living.

Ventilation and daylight at the heart of comfortable living
By clever use of the space under the roof, the architect has created a habitable area of 130 m² over two levels with an intermediate level between the garden level and the upper floor. The home has been designed to capture natural light from all directions: southern light, northern light and top light. Creating balanced light throughout the house, this makes for a pleasant and healthy living environment.

The architectural design greatly facilitates natural ventilation, which, when the season and the weather require, can be enhanced by double-flow mechanical ventilation. In the summer months, an intelligent control system opens windows and deploys sun screens to regulate the indoor temperature and ensure optimum comfort.

The roof – the fifth active facade
The pitched roof is part and parcel of France's cultural heritage, its slope varying according to region and climate. Thanks to the modular design of Maison Air et Lumière, the pitched roof of each individual variant can be adapted to location, orientation and use. The steepness of the roof can be varied according to how much solar energy and daylight is required. It also allows for a wide range of interior volumes to suit occupants' requirements in terms of use, dimensions and layout of the living space.

Maison Air et Lumière is one example of this concept. Comprising three volumes fitted into one another, it provides quality living space in a wide variety of interior designs.

The south-facing roof of the central volume comes in two gradients, enabling the thermal and photovoltaic solar panels to harvest optimum amounts of energy from the sun. The pitched roof is not simply a protective barrier, but the fifth active facade of the house and a key component in optimising its energy efficiency and overall architectural aesthetics.

Energy efficiency
The energy efficiency derives from the maximum insulation of the house combined with the optimised capture of sunlight through the windows, reducing heating demand to a minimum. The energy concept of the house is based on the maximum use of renewable resources: solar energy, natural light and fresh air.

Heat and domestic hot water are provided by a heat pump connected to thermal solar panels and a low-temperature underfloor heating system. All residual energy consumption is provided by the photovoltaic panels integrated into the roof, resulting in a positive energy balance.

An accessible, adaptable house with variable layout
The architecture of Maison Air et Lumière is adapted harmoniously to its site. The slope of the site is used to organise the floor levels, creating an additional level between the garden level and the upper floor.

The modular architectural concept of the house allows adaptation to suit other contexts, for example terraced houses or town houses. Whether the house is large or small, in an urban or rural environment, the concept's flexibility allows Maison Air et Lumière's principles of comfortable living, energy performance and environmental quality to be used in a wide variety of contexts.

Project managementArchitects: Nomade ArchitectesEngineering consultants (thermal engineering): Cardonnel Ingénierie Engineering consultants (structural engineering): E.T.H.A.

VKR Group partners

Industry partnersGroupe Saint-Gobain, represented by its companies Saint-Gobain Isover, Saint-Gobain Solar Systems, Saint-Gobain Glass Solutions and PlacoplatreAldesUmicore (VMZINC)

Enormous socio-economic values at stake

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0200

The Climate Commission's report does not place enough emphasis on the role of solar energy in its otherwise useful contribution to reducing Denmark's CO2 emissions, says the VELUX Group.
People require a good indoor climate and have a basic need to feel in contact with the world about them. Two factors that help with that are daylight and natural ventilation.
"The VELUX Group hopes that Denmark will take these issues politically seriously and, for example, ensure that our building regulations place specific demands on daylight and indoor climate based on human needs, so that buildings in the future will not just become more energy efficient but also healthy places to spend time in – just as the Climate Commission recommends," states Jørgen Tang-Jensen, CEO of the VELUX Group.
"But it is not enough for such demands for daylight levels to apply solely to office buildings and the other buildings we spend time in when we are at work. They should also apply to our homes, so that when we go home we still benefit from a healthy indoor climate with masses of daylight. Specifically, we believe demands should be tightened from the existing 2% daylight in office buildings to a minimum of 5% - and be extended to include the buildings we live in."
The VELUX Group also believes that politicians should ensure that buildings are energy-marked in terms of their CO2 neutrality in order to make visible the contribution of renewable energy.
The Group further hopes that follow-up action will produce specific demands for the establishment of solar thermal heating equipment and use of renewable energy in homes. Current legislation states that solar thermal heating plants that can meet the demands for domestic hot water under normal conditions should be implemented in newbuilding and renovation of buildings outside existing district heating networks. We believe, as a consequence of this, that it is relevant to impose such demands on ALL buildings.
The VELUX Group very much wants to be party to finding solutions to the problems we are facing, solutions that do not result merely in energy-efficient and sustainable buildings but, above all, buildings in which people can thrive. To this end, we have initiated a series of building experiments under the name of Model Home 2020 in Europe – both newbuild and renovation – that will give us greater knowledge of how we can create a healthy indoor climate. In parallel with this, we are working with researchers to compile documentation on the effect of daylight and natural ventilation on human health and well-being indoors.
The Group sincerely hopes that the Danish government and parliament will follow up on that, with the Climate Commission's report as their starting point. It is a report that gives hope that future legislation will give serious and meaningful support to the sustainable development of existing buildings so that they become not just more energy-efficient but also renovated with respect for human health and well-being. This is essential as we spend 80 to 90 per cent of our time indoors.
The VELUX Group is taking a very active part in the World Climate Solution conference on 29 and 30 September 2010 in Copenhagen. This is an opportunity to get up-to-date and follow the debate on building of the future.

British VELUX Model Home 2020 project breaks new ground

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0200

VELUX Company Ltd marked the start of construction on its ModelHome 2020 project with a groundbreaking ceremony on the site where it will build two zero carbon homes in Rothwell, Kettering, on Wednesday 22nd September.
The ceremony was attended by Lord Best, President of the Local Government Association and Chair of the Hanover Housing Group, as well as the project's partners, including HTA Architects, Willmott Dixon, Kettering Borough Council and the North Nothants Development Company (NNDC).
Intended to act as a standard for future sustainable design, the two three bedroom and four bedroom CarbonLight Homes will be located within the second phase of Bovis Homes' Charter Park development. Designed to deliver a 70% reduction in carbon emissions the remaining 30% will be offset through allowable solutions. This will include the retrofitting of the existing local housing stock and off-site renewable electricity generation.
As well as substantially reducing carbon emissions, VELUX Company Ltd. has designed the homes so that they are easily replicable for the mass housebuilder and appeal to buyers, embracing modern lifestyles. Incorporating air source heat pumps with individual biomass stoves and VELUX solar hot water system, the CarbonLight Homes have high levels of daylight and natural ventilation, promoting a healthy indoor climate.
Construction of the two CarbonLight Homes will start in November, with the build process available to watch via time delay video on the British VELUX website: www.velux.co.uk. Completion is expected in March 2011, when the two houses will be opened to the public for six months. They will then be sold and become the subject of post occupancy performance monitoring, with the findings used to help inform the future sustainable housing agenda.
Kevin Brennan, Head of Sustainability, VELUX Company Ltd, comments: "Groundbreaking represents an exciting next step for the Model Home 2020 project. The project's partners are committed to building sustainable homes that promote a practical, comfortable and healthy living environment and I look forward to throwing open the doors of the two CarbonLight Homes to the homebuying public as well as the sustainable housing debate."
Lord Best, President of the Local Government Association and Chair of the Hanover Housing Group, also comments:"The industry is desperately lacking in the research needed to be able to produce homes that are energy efficient and promote the health of the occupant at a low cost, so I am grateful to the Model Homes 2020 project team for looking at the science behind it. We've become accustomed to smaller space standards but the four bedroom house, which forms part of the project, is 180 sq ft and both have generously-sized windows – places you would expect to live for a lifetime. I very much look forward to returning to see the CarbonLight Homes, once completed."
The design and build of the two CarbonLight Homes in Rothwell, Kettering forms part of VELUX continued efforts to put health and wellbeing at the forefront of sustainable housing design.

VELUX to Build Six Experimental CO2-Neutral Houses in Five EU Countries

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The VELUX Group has launched the project Model Home 2020 as a vision for climate-neutral buildings with a high level of livability. As part of its strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable building, from 2008 to 2010, VELUX will build six full-scale experimental demo-houses in five European countries. The first house, Home for Life, is a carbon-neutral single-family home with optimum livability. The second experiment, Green Lighthouse, is a faculty building for the University of Copenhagen - it is the first carbon-neutral public building in Denmark. Available video includes views of the first two experimental buildings and an edited packaged with soundbites from Sverre Simonsen, father of the test family in Home for Life, talking about the house and why the family is involved in the project; and Lone Feifer, Strategic Project Manager, VELUX Group, explaining the main idea behind Model Home 2020.

Joining Forces for Living in the City of the Future

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Whereas the core task of the IBA Hamburg until its closing presentation in 2013 is to develop sustainable solutions for key development problems facing the modern metropolis, VELUX Germany´s Model Home 2020 residential building, combines optimal energy design with the best possible indoor climate.

"The IBA as an urban development process and the Model Home 2020 experiment have thus committed to the same goals: sustainability and climate protection", explains Andreas Kuipers, Managing Director of VELUX Germany.

In implementing these goals, the IBA and VELUX Germany aim to follow part of this path together. Andreas Kuipers signed the "IBA Convention" on 8 September as an expression of this cooperation.

"We are pleased that VELUX Germany has made its contribution with the Model Home 2020 experiment towards the climate protection concept 'Erneuerbares Wilhemsburg (renewable Wilhelmsburg)', as the greatest potential for saving energy lies in the renovation of existing spaces", says Uli Hellweg, Managing Director of IBA Hamburg.

Model Home 2020 in Germany is a renovation project
With its Model Home 2020, the VELUX Group is searching for solutions to living in the future. The goal is to develop buildings which combine optimal energy design and the highest quality of living. Currently, six concept houses are being developed across Europe, which take into account climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the respective country and provide specific solutions. The Model Home 2020 in Germany is a renovation project in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. The modernisation of a semi-detached house from the 1950s is aimed to show which results are possible with integrated planning and the use of modern technology. Planning and implementation are now also officially committed to one of the key recurring themes of the IBA: building that is both climate and energy conscious.

Students at the TU Darmstadt (Darmstadt Polytechnic) developed designs and ideas for implementing the renovation project while participating in a closed competition endowed with a total of €7,500 in prize money between May and August. The other semi-detached house under private ownership was also included in the plans by the students. The plan entailed modernising under the aspect of 'cost efficiency' thereby achieving results which can be realised using average available means of a homeowner.

The jury
A jury comprised of external experts and VELUX staff members judged the proposals at the beginning of September. Among the jury members were Professors Manfred Hegger and Klaus Daniels, TU Darmstadt, Professor of lighting design, Peter Andres, Hamburg, Baudirektor Dipl.-Ing. Dieter Hegner, Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtplanung (BMVBS) and the Managing Director of IBA Hamburg, Uli Hellweg. "We support the idea of the Model Home 2020 experiment with its question concerning living in the future while also equally considering ecological, economical and socio-cultural viewpoints", explains Hellweg on his commitment.
Katharina Fey emerged from the competition as the winner with her design "... aus eigenem Anbau". The jury found: „that the handling of daylight and natural ventilation played a key role in design. […]. In addition to the high housing quality, the statistical data from the designs relating to energy provided convincing results".

Cooperation between IBA and VELUX Germany continues
Even after completion of the construction phase, projected for May 2010, the close cooperation between IBA and VELUX Germany is scheduled to be continued. The plan is to make use of synergies for project work and to jointly organise symposia for architects and planners as well as for private persons open to modernisation during the interim presentation year of the IBA Hamburg.

Background: Student competition VELUX Model Home 2020
Students of architecture of the TU Darmstadt (Darmstadt Polytechnic) developed designs for implementing the VELUX Model Home 2020 in Germany for a closed competition between May and August 2009. The question was: "How can trendsetting architecture and top-quality materials be ideally used in modernising old houses?" In addition to optimised energy efficiency, a high level of comfort should be guaranteed for the residents.

An expert jury awarded four of the total 12 designs entered with prizes at the beginning of September. The jury was comprised of experts from the competency team as well as VELUX staff and the Managing Director of IBA Hamburg, Uli Hellweg, along with the Baudirektor im Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Bau und Stadtplanung, Dipl.-Ing. Hans-Dieter Hegner. In addition to the energy concept and measures for increasing housing quality, the jury also judged the architectural creativity of the concepts entered.

Katharina Fey was named winner with her design "... aus eigenem Anbau". The competition offered a total prize purse of €7,500. The jury found: "In addition to the high housing quality, the statistical data from the designs relating to energy provided convincing results". Second place Eun-A Kim impressed the jury with her design Dach-t-raum "[...] with its fascinating spatial effects and daylight atmosphere". And further: "The housing quality of the building has been considerably improved through use of daylight and natural ventilation". The third place was split between Steffen Baumgärtner with his entry 'Barcode 2020' and Bettina Moll with 'solar kin'.

Photo caption
The jury of the student competition for VELUX Model Home 2020 (from the left): Tim Bialucha (Darmstadt Polytechnic), Lone Feifer (VELUX A/S), Jörn Bohlmann (VELUX Germany), Prof. Peter Andres (Andres-Lichtplanung), Petra Schumacher (VELUX Germany), Hans Drexler (Darmstadt Polytechnic), Prof. Manfred Hegger (Darmstadt Polytechnic), Dieter Hegner (BMVBS), Andreas Kuipers (VELUX Germany), Prof. Klaus Daniels (Darmstadt Polytechnic) and Uli Hellweg (IBA Hamburg).
Photo: VELUX Deutschland GmbH

Read more about Model Home 2020

About the IBA Hamburg
For the first time in the history of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, an international building exhibition (IBA) is being held in the city. From 2007 until the closing presentation in 2013 the core task of the IBA Hamburg is to address urban development issues on the Elbe islands of Wilhelmsburg and Veddel, including plans for Harburg upriver port and connecting this 27-km2 site with the nearby city centre. IBA Hamburg GmbH, a company fully owned by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, has received the Senate's mandate to conduct this urban development process. All IBA projects – building projects as well as cultural, social and neighbourhood projects – offer sustainable solutions for key development problems facing the modern metropolis: internationalisation of the urban community, acceptable growth and the use of renewable energy.

For further information, please visit: www.iba-hamburg.de

Visions for buildings of the future – Opening a 'Home for Life'

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0200

The house is located in Lystrup outside Denmark's second-largest city Århus and leads the way to the next generation of climate-neutral buildings.

The building industry is facing serious challenges in terms of buildings of the future. Statistics show that people in the EU spend 90 % of their time indoors and buildings account for 40 % of all energy consumption. VELUX sees it as part of the company's responsibility to enter into a dialogue with relevant stakeholders to find the optimal solutions to meet these future challenges. Model Home 2020 is part of VELUX strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings of the future, designed to synthesise a perfect balance of energy efficiency, indoor climate, architecture and leading cleantech solutions.

"This is an important step towards a new vision for buildings of the future. 'Home for Life' demonstrates that we can tackle the climate challenges by reducing CO2 emissions through the application of renewable energy without compromising on our demands to daylight and fresh air," says Lone Feifer, Strategic Project Manager, VELUX A/S.

One experiment is better than…
VELUX has a long tradition of working with experiments and Model Home 2020 is a natural continuation of that tradition. VELUX founder Villum Kann Rasmussen's philosophy was that 'One experiment is worth more than a thousand expert assumptions'. Each of the six houses of the Model Home concept is an experiment with the purpose of bringing us closer to the vision of designing a home that reflects the balance between climate, architecture and daylight while also developing inspiration for new standards in CO2 neutral buildings.

'Home for Life' systematically uses the energy from the sun. The daylight area of the house is twice the size of the daylight area of a conventional low-energy building. Strategically placed solar-cell operated roof windows offer a balanced amount of daylight to the bedrooms and the kitchen-dining room area. All roof windows have dynamic, solar-cell operated blinds on the inside and awnings on the outside. This is a family home that actually produces more energy than it consumes.

"We have built an energy-efficient house that is both comfortable to live in and offers visual appeal. That is at the heart of the concept of the holistic home – it caters for people's health and well-being while also actively using renewable energy from the sun. We combine the features of our products to admit daylight and heat into the home, reduce heat loss at night and also manage to control the indoor climate, says Lone Feifer.

Facts about 'Home for Life'
The house is 190 m2 and comprises 1 1/2 storey. The window area (vertical windows and roof windows) is equivalent to 40 % of the floor area.

It has four roof windows facing south and eight windows facing north. All roof windows are with triple glazing and they are fitted with interior decorative blinds and exterior awnings that protect effectively against heating in the summer (up to 90 %) and insulates against heat loss through the windows in the winter.

All roof windows are with io-homecontrol®, which is an electronic control system that helps ensure a comfortable indoor climate and minimal energy consumption, e.g. by closing windows and blinds at night to avoid heat loss, thus minimising the energy loss at night considerably.

The VELUX systems solution comprises roof windows, sun screening and electronic control features combined with VELUX installation products for optimised installation with minimum heat loss and insulation properties.

It also comprises VELUX solar collectors designed for installation in combination with roof windows. They exploit the heat of the sun while providing a visually appealing and technically optimal solution.

In 'Home for Life', VELUX is also launching a new product which makes the intelligent systems solution CO2 neutral – windows and sun screening open and close using solar-cell operated batteries so no connection to the mains is necessary.

More information
You can read more about 'Home for Life' at www.velux.com/Modelhome2020

More information
'Home for Life' was built as a joint venture by VELUX and VELFAC in association with architects aart arkitekter and consultants Esbensen Rådgivende Ingeniører. The other participants in the project group are: WindowMaster, Sonnenkraft, Ingeniørhøjskolen i Århus, Alexandra Instituttet, Arkitektskolen Aarhus, Statens Byggeforskningsinstitut and Århus Kommune. KFS-Boligbyg constructed the building.

About Model Home 2020
VELUX has launched its own vision for sustainable buildings of the future, a concept by the name of Model Home 2020. Our objective is to create climate-neutral buildings that optimise indoor climate, fresh air and daylight. 'Home for Life' is the first of six houses to be built in Europe as part of the Model Home 2020 concept. The two houses in Denmark will be built as a joint venture by VELFAC and VELUX.

More details, please see www.velux.com/modelhome2020

New Vision for Future Living Environments

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0200

VELUX launches their vision for future living environments - a concept named Model Home 2020. With this concept, VELUX aims for climate-neutral construction and optimal indoor comfort with fresh air and natural daylight.

In EU today, we spend 90 % of our time indoors, in buildings that represent over 40 % of the total energy consumption¹. Up to 30 % of the building mass does not contribute to nor provide a healthy indoor climate².

These figures add up to a considerable challenge for how we think and consider the construction of buildings in the future. VELUX products being part of the construction business, we have formulated a strategy to take active part in developing sustainable buildings: We pursue an innovative and competitive approach to building design that enhances living comfort while reducing the energy consumption of the buildings to fulfil even the most ambitious regulatory standards. VELUX take up the challenge through formulating new ideas and professional parameters for climate-neutral construction with sustainable living.

The ideas are tested by performing six real-life unique experiments that reflect and respond to different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions. VELUX has a long tradition of performing experiments to test ideas "One experiment is better than a thousand expert views" was a statement our founder, Villum Kann Rasmussen, lived by from the very beginning of the company.

The result of an experiment is open until the time it has been carried out. "We wish to develop and experiment with how we think about our future living environments, and realise the ideas as experiments. Model Home 2020 is our framework for such experiments. Each experiment will bring us closer to our vision: a house that is climate neutral and dynamically adjusts to its environment to create an optimal indoor climate", says CMO Michael K Rasmussen from VELUX.

The houses will be open for 6-12 months after completion, and will then be inhabited. The energy consumption and the indoor climate conditions will be monitored during the use. The monitoring is the completion of the experiment. The six houses will be placed in:
2009: Denmark (Copenhagen and Aarhus) and Austria
2010: France, Great Britain and Germany

The houses in Denmark and Great Britain are made in cooperation with VELFAC – our affiliate company producing facade windows.

DIRECTIVE 2002/91/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 December 2002 on the energy performance of buildings
Jon Ayres, Occupational Medicine 2005;55:417–418 doi:10.1093/occmed/kqi134