The award
The International VELUX Award 2016 for Students of Architecture wants to encourage and challenge students of architecture to explore the theme of daylight – and to create a deeper understanding of this specific and ever-relevant source of energy, light and life.
The award celebrates and promotes excellence in completed study works. These works can be made as works complying with the prize scope of rethinking the values of conscious daylighting design with focus on people’s health in living and working environments.
The award encourages projects that celebrate the privilege of being a student; with curiosity and with the willingness to think “out of the box” – as well as consider the social, sociological and environmental dimension of light.
The award wants to acknowledge not only the students but their teachers as well. Therefore, teachers of the projects are also awarded.
Theme
“Light of Tomorrow” is the overall theme of the International VELUX Award. The award seeks to challenge the future of daylight in the built environment with an open-minded and experimental approach. Therefore, the award seeks to widen the boundaries of daylight in architecture, including aesthetics, functionality, sustainability, and the interaction between buildings and environment.
1. Daylight in buildings
Projects that demonstrate applicable principles for providing daylight and sunlight into buildings – including the effects of building construction and context of the site, shape and dimensions, window openings, screens, shadings, interior divisions, materials and external conditions.
Specific focus on architecture for health and well-being and projects that address challenges faced by cities, communities and modern societies, and where daylight and architecture can help create change through better and healthier living environments.
2. Daylight investigations
Projects that look at the physical properties of light, basics of optics and materials, as well as technological developments, new materials, storage or transportation of daylight.
The use of daylight in public space for functional, recreational, cultural or spiritual use and the effect of daylight on state of mind, health and well-being as well as the dynamics and temporal quality of daylight and its effects on behaviour and spaces over time and seasons.
Type of award and categories
The award is an open ideas competition and it is organised globally in two phases: in the first phase, regional prizes will be awarded to projects from the UIA member regions 1) Western Europe, 2) Eastern Europe and the Middle East, 3) the Americas, 4) Asia+ Oceania and 5) Africa. In the second phase, prizes will be awarded to overall winners.
The award is not restricted to the use of VELUX products. Innovative thinking and use of specific VELUX components as daylight providers will however be within the scope of the award and the jury will be allowed to give special prizes to the best projects.
Criteria
The jury will evaluate the projects in accordance with the following criteria:
- The work with daylighting as a premise for architecture
- How the project is researched and documented
- How the project addresses contemporary and future challenges
- The level of experimentation and innovation
- The overall graphic presentation of the project, how the project presents itself.
The jury
All award entries are reviewed by an international jury and their election of the winners is based on the above criteria. The 2016 jury will be announced in January 2016.
Who can participate?
The award is open to any registered student of architecture – individual or team – all over the world. We encourage multi-disciplinary teams including e.g. engineering, design and landscaping. Every student or student team must be backed and granted submission by a teacher from a school of architecture.
The award welcomes projects from individuals or groups of students, who are students during the study year 2015/16.
There is no limit to the number of entries from each school, but participating schools should ensure the quality of submitted study projects, e.g. by making a prejudgment. VELUX employees cannot participate.
Schedule
| November 2015 | Registration opens |
| 1 April 2016 | Registration closes; submission period opens |
| 15 April 2016 | Deadline for questions |
| 15 June 2016 | Submission deadline; project upload |
| June 2016 | Jury meeting – evaluation of all submitted projects |
| October 2016 | Winners announcement and online exhibition |
Registration
Only students who have registered for the award before 1 April 2016 can participate. To register, go to iva.velux.com and follow the instructions.
Anonymity
To ensure anonymity, no names of entrants, teachers, schools or countries are allowed on any part of the submitted material. The registration and submission system of the International VELUX Award has been constructed to ensure anonymity of the participants throughout the process from registration to after the jury meeting.
The award, presented every second year since 2004, is organised in co-operation with UIA, International Union of Architects, and the competition concept is based on UIA rules for international competitions.
Submission
You can submit your project on iva.velux.com using the IVA account that you create when you register.
Deadline for submission is 15 June 2016.
Your project can only be delivered digitally and only by the person who has registered.
The jury evaluation is performed online and you should take into account that your project should present itself digitally.
You need to submit:
- One image file, which depicts your project
- A description of your project, no longer than 800 words, in English
Image specifications
| File format | JPEG |
| File extension | .jpg |
| JPEG quality | Maximum |
| JPEG format options | Baseline (“Standard”) |
| Colour space | RGB (Preferred destination/mode Adobe RBG 1998) |
| Colour depth | 8 bit (per channel, three channels) |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Pixel aspect ratio | 1:1 (Square) |
| Effective resolution | 300 ppi (pixels per inch) |
| Maximum file size | 150 MB |
| Dimensions | 9600 pixels wide x 5400 pixels high (32 x 18 inch in 300 ppi) |
| Layout | Landscape |
| Layers | None |
| Alpha channels | None |
| Clipping paths | None |
Participation link : http://iva.velux.com/users/new
Prizes
The total prize money is at least 30,000 €. Depending on the results of the international jury, a Grand Prize of 5,000 € per category will be awarded (4,000 € to the student and 1,000 € to the teacher) for the most outstanding projects. Depending on the results for each region, a prize of 1,250 € per category will be awarded for the best projects (1,000 € to the student and 250 € to the teacher). The jury will be allowed to award a number of special prizes, including prizes for innovative use of VELUX products.
Winners announcement
The winners of the International VELUX Award 2016 for Students of Architecture will be announced in October 2016.
All submitted projects will be displayed at iva.velux.com after the winners announcement.
Further information and questions
Further information, specification and inspiration will be available on iva.velux.com.
Questions about the award can be submitted to [email protected] until 15 April 2016. Answers to questions will be thematised and published under FAQ on iva.velux.com.
Public announcement
Communication on and photos and films of winners, winning projects and honourable mentions will be released to architectural magazines, newspapers, webpages and other relevant media after the winner’ announcement.
By entering the International VELUX Award, the participants accept that the UIA and the organiser – the VELUX Group – may publish and disseminate the submitted projects and photos of the participants in analogue and digital form.
