International VELUX Awards 2018: Global winners announced
The VELUX Group is proud to announce that “Light Forms Juggler” by Anastasia Maslova and “Road to Light” by Yuhan Luo, Di Lan, Yuan Liu, Yusong Liu are the global winners of the International VELUX Award 2018 for Students of Architecture. A jury of internationally-acclaimed architects selected two global winners, following live presentations by nine regional winners.
Sunlight as a form giver
“Light Forms Juggler” by Maslova from Kazan State University of Architecture and Engineering in Russia was selected as a winner in the Daylight in Buildings category after impressing the jury by asking relevant questions about the way we design buildings today.
The project invites us to take a fresh look at architecture. At present, a very significant problem is insufficient lighting in buildings. But at the same time, there is so much sunlight. So how do we shape buildings to capture the maximum amount of natural light?
The project suggests a change in the shape of buildings and their openings, where rectangular shapes increasingly limit the penetration of light into space. It also analyses various alternative forms that maximise the potential of natural light penetration as well as investigating the shadows cast by buildings.
Paving the way with light
The global winner in the Daylight Investigations category, “Road to Light”, took home the prize after creating a well researched project that thoroughly addresses a real problem and presents a simple and practical solution.
The project, created by students from Tianjin University in China, stems from a very basic need for safe passage between communities. With the lack of road infrastructure and electricity in the mountainous topography of rural China, getting to school can be a very dangerous task for children – especially when coming home in the dark.
The team suggest introducing a small amount of inexpensive fluorite to the pathways. The bright colours of the stones will glow for several hours at night when irradiated by daylight during the day. Almost all provinces in China have large fluorite mines and the coarse processing of the raw stone into pavement material makes is economically feasible for poor rural areas.
The two winning teams received their awards, together with the overall winners of the professional architects’ categories, at the World Architecture Festival’s closing gala dinner in Amsterdam on November 30.
About the Award
The overall theme of the International VELUX Award 2018 for Students of Architecture is “Light of Tomorrow.” Launched in 2004, and held biennially, the award seeks to challenge the future of daylight in the built environment by inspiring creative explorations on the themes of daylight in buildings and daylight investigations from the world’s leading future architects.
The distinguished award jury – featuring Carme Pigém Barceló, Rick Joy, Li Hu, Saša Begović and Martin Pors Jepsen – selected the nine regional winners after reviewing more than 600 project submissions from 57 countries earlier this year.
For more information about International VELUX Award, visit iva.velux.com.
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