Winning Projects of the International VELUX Award

Here are the three winning projects, as well as eight Honorable Mentions, of the International VELUX Award 2010. A South Korean team of four architecture students from Hanyang University in Seoul won first prize for their project “Constellation of light fields”.

The International VELUX Award encourages students of architecture to explore the theme of sunlight and daylight in its widest sense to create a deeper understanding of this specific and ever relevant source of light and energy. The award is presented every second year to promote and celebrate excellence in completed study works in any scale from small-scale components to large urban contexts or abstract concepts and experimentation.

Jury comments on Constellation of light fields: "The project proposes an immaterial field – installed in an outdoor performance hall of “the Marronnier Park” in Seoul. Today the place has four columns and one translucent roof, which provides homogeneous and monotonous light. The project suggests a change from the material elements to immaterial: Over immaterial columns, the roof is split into stripes of fabric that can be closed for proving shade – or twisted – following various patterns – for generating linear or scattered openings – letting every type of light flow to the field.

The project addresses the big urban space – it addresses the very important issue of controlling light rather than magnifying light. The project addresses structural, urban and social issues by looking into how to revive a space and how to make it habitable and viable.

The jury found that the project idea was very strong and intriguing. The comprehensiveness of the project made it to the top as reliable and viable – and by discussing an idea, which could also be applicable in other climates. Everything shown in the project is about testing – beautifully represented in a series of renderings and photos."

Joe Wu, a Chinese student at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands won the 2nd prize for his project “Lightscape between gaps”, which provides an analysis of sunlight in Hong Kong’s extreme vertical urban development.

He shares the 2nd prize with Ma Xin, Wang Rui and Yang Meng from the Architecture School of Tianjin University in China. Their project “Condensation of variational sunlight influences” considers the interaction between sunlight and people’s behaviour in urban life.

In addition to the three winners, the jury awarded eight Honorable Mentions (check the image gallery below) representing five different countries. All in all, China had six prize winning entries in the 2010 Award.

All images courtesy of International VELUX Award