International VELUX Awards 2018: Global Winners Announced

The world’s best architecture students have been celebrated at the World Architecture Festival, held in Amsterdam – there were two global winners of the International VELUX Award 2018 for Students of Architecture.

The VELUX Group has proudly announced that ‘Light Forms Juggler’ by Anastasia Maslova and ‘Road to Light’ by Yuhan Luo, Di Lan, Yuan Liu and Yusong Liu are the global winners of the award.

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 jury agreed that the project ‘exhibits rigorous exploration of daylight in buildings related to the urban scale’ and that it showcases a ‘strong architectural mind of thinking’ and the project ‘raises a lot of interesting questions.’

The project invites people 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. The question is, 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 addressed a real problem and presents a simple and practical solution.

The jury said it is a ‘simple solution that changes the life of children in remote rural areas’.

‘By introducing small pieces of local materials, it encourages optimism, growth and thinking,’ they added.

The project, created by students from Tianjin University in China, stems from a 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 an extremely perilous task for children, especially when coming home in the dark.

The team suggests 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 it economically feasible for poor rural areas.

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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.

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