On the 1st October of 2013 the International VELUX Award (the Award) will open for registration for the 2014 edition. This prestigious award is being held for the sixth time, challenging students of architecture to explore the theme of daylight in architecture. The Award and the opportunity to work with daylight, attracted 3,262 team registrations from 79 countries in 2012.

"We want to stimulate the curiosity of students encouraging them to investigate and challenge the boundaries of daylight in architecture in its widest sense. We want students to "think out of the box",  and to experiment with conceptual ideas, to explore daylight as an ever-relevant source of light," says Per Arnold Andersen, architect and head of VELUX Group Knowledge Centre for Daylight, Energy and Indoor Climate  

Of 983 entries in 2012, 14 projects were awarded at the Award event at the Serralves Museum, designed by famous Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza.  Mr Siza was one of the first to congratulate the Award winners when he opened the Award ceremony and told the story of the legendary museum, renowned for its architecture. The 14 winning teams and their teachers shared the prize money of 30,000 euro.

New Zealand submitted 28 entries, consisting of a total of 35 students, in 2012.

Winners 2012

Bo Li and Ge Men; two Chinese students of architecture from ETHZ in Zürich, Switzerland, took first prize for their poetic project "Resonance, Memory".  A team of five students from the Inje University in Korea won second prize for their highly imaginative and innovative project titled "The Mongolian Dandelion Seed Impregnated with Light".  A team of students from the technical university in Krakow, Poland, took third prize for their very conceptual project "Light as a Tool to Break Structure". They share the third prize with a team from Tongji University in China, with their project "Privatization of Sunshine". In addition to the four winning projects, the jury awarded ten honourable mentions representing: China (4 projects), Belgium (2 projects), Portugal (1 project), Spain (1 project), Romania (1 project) and Denmark (1 project). 

First prize winners of previous awards in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010 have come from Norway, Denmark, the US and South Korea.

Award brief and detailed information about registration and participation will be issued on 1 October 2013.  Students need to register to be able to participate in the Award.  Registration takes place on-line on iva.velux.com from 1 October 2013.

For more information about the International VELUX Award or contact [email protected]