Copenhagen,
26
August
2015
|
14:29
Europe/Copenhagen

Daylight Symposium ready to kick off

Summary

How can we enhance our health and well-being with daylight? This is one of the questions, which will be discussed at the 6th VELUX Daylight Symposium which is just around the corner. More than 300 researchers and practitioners are ready to convene the expert forum and eager to share new knowledge and examples of how daylight can drive change.

This year’s Daylight Symposium will focus on the challenges faced by today’s 24/7 society where more than 90% of our daily routines are taking place indoors.

Leading researchers and practitioners will address pertinent questions such as: How can we ensure that our modern lifestyle is in balance with nature’s daily and seasonal cycles? How can spaces and occupants adapt to changing daily and seasonal conditions? How can architecture and daylight interact to stimulate our senses? How can we rethink our homes, workplaces and public spaces into healthier and more sustainable living environments?

Buildings should provide health and happiness
One of the key themes that will be discussed at the symposium is how architecture can stimulate health, comfort and happiness, adapting to changing daily and seasonal conditions and interacting with our senses and biological rhythms.

Key speakers - such as artist Olafur Eliasson, David Nelson from Foster + Partners and Paul Bogard from James Madison University - will address these issues from a wide range of different perspectives, from schools and hospitals to offices, homes and entire urban environments.

The 6th VELUX Daylight Symposium is part of the official programme of the UN International Year of Light, where the programs will promote improved public and political understanding of the central role of light in the modern world. As a company with the aim of bringing daylight into people’s lives, we see it as our call to activate daylight-related know-how and practices from across the world,
says Per Arnold Andersen, Head of the VELUX Groups’ Knowledge Centre for Daylight, Energy and Indoor Climate.
We want to bridge leading-edge research and building practices to come up with new approaches that can lead to healthier buildings,
Per Arnold Andersen continues .

Putting research into practice
The symposium aims to bring forward a number of research perspectives and tools on human-responsive design that can inspire the rethinking of homes, workplaces and public buildings. Regulation and building codes, however, play an essential role when it comes to putting daylighting research into large-scale practice.

The Daylight Symposium questions whether the current regulation and codes are sufficient to secure adequate daylighting and how new metrics and design criteria may help the building community move forward.

A lot of work has been done in recent decades on the subject of daylight metrics. Nevertheless, it appears that, in practice, building professionals actually do not know what the affordable targets to match are,
says Bernard Paule, Associate Director at the Estia Institute in Lausanne.

Facts about the Daylight Symposium 2015
The 6th VELUX Daylight Symposium takes place at Tobacco Dock in London, on 2-3 September 2015.

More than 30 researchers and scientists will present leading-edge knowhow at the Symposium. To see a full list of speakers, please go to the Symposium programme: www.thedaylightsite.com/symposium/2015-2/programme/

The 6th VELUX Daylight Symposium is part of the International Year of Light (IYL) programme. IYL was initiated by the UN General Assembly and shares the agenda to raise global awareness about how light promotes sustainable development and solutions to global challenges in energy, education and health. The VELUX Group is IYL sponsor.