Two Nigerians were part of the five regional winners unveiled by VELUX as winners of the highly contested international Daylight in Buildings global contest for registered students of architecture.
With nearly 600 projects from 57 countries, the International VELUX Award jury had plenty of work to do at the end of June, 2016. After reviewing all of the projects over two days, five regional winners in each category: Daylight in
Buildings and Daylight Investigations were selected.
The projects represent a remarkable pool of ideas, reflections, scales and locations. They work with spiritual and metaphysical matters in memorials or sometimes rare circumstances – counterbalanced by projects that focus specifically on everyday situations and very concrete, simple and realistic interventions.
The jury finds the overall quality of the projects to be very good, and see many interesting explorations and a willingness to “think out of the box” − not necessarily by suggesting very complicated or complex ideas but merely by focusing on simple ideas with a big impact.
The regional winners stand out as exemplary in terms of their investigation and presentation. They meet the two award criteria and balance the poetic and the technical in the presentation. A shared characteristic across the winners is the level of thought and the sense of materiality.
The regional winners that emerged for Daylight in Buildings in Africa are Nigerians. The duo of Fatai Osundiji and Emmanuel Ayoloto, from Ile Ife, focused their project on the installation of semi transparent, solar sensitive panels on existing roofs to allow screened sunlight into the most vital indoor spaces and with integrated photovoltaic solar collection for powering artificial light at night.
“The best part about building our project has to do with discovering a way to solve the power problem that we face in this part of the world. This is a project that is simple and can be employed, not just in our communities but in any part of the world,” Fatai said.
And the jury had a verdict on the project. “It is a single solution to two problems; inadequate daylight levels in the central corridor, and irregular supply of electricity for light. The proposal is well presented and easily read, and the main rendering of the nighttime situation and the smaller indoor studies are very convincing,” the jury said.
Enzo Piero Vergara Vaccia from Chile is another winner. His project suggests a future “urban center without cars.” In particular, his project considers the role of existing in order to create new spaces of daylight that trigger sustainable mobility and new activities in the urban setting.
“It inspires me to think about a city with more people on the streets, less pollution, less noise and less urban violence. I am inspired by the idea of reconverting buildings, reimagining them,” Enzo said.
And the verdict of the jury is that, “The project is rewarded for its strong idea that challenges the way we have transformed our historic cities and how huge parking space volumes could be enlightened with new alternating city facilities.”
Kwang Hoon Lee, Hyuk Sung Kwon are the winners for Asia and Oceania while Yu Min Park is the winner for South Korea. The regional winning team from South Korea focuses on bringing daylight to semi underground spaces which emerged in the 1970s as subterranean air raid shelters in Seoul.
“We were thinking… how can we make those environments better? How can we give them a better space like many others have in apartments and houses,” said Kwang Hoon.
And the jury said that, “It takes its starting point in a realistic situation and a real challenge, and subsequently suggests a solution that seems realisable as a very simple intervention of the cubic, sliding window prism. The project is illustrated in a very beautiful way and the presentation of the main idea and the use of the sliding prism is truly convincing.”
Kamil Głowacki, Łukasz Gąska and Marta Sowińska Poland, winners from Eastern Europe and the Middle East and students of Politechnika Poznańska in Poland identifies current solutions for solar shading (curtains, blinds or shutters) and considers the way these solutions can also obscure the view from the window or completely cut off the light.
“Daylight plays and will play a vital role in architecture. The ability to manage light is the essence of constructing buildings. Daylight affects the function of humans, animals and plants, so it is necessary to take it into account while designing,” said Kamil.
The jury said, “The jury appreciated the very realistic and innovative approach, and were impressed by the sequence of illuminance and luminance studies (daylight levels and potential glare and overheating risks), the simple and informative window detail sketches and main rendering demonstrating the effect on the facades − and selling the idea nonreligious setting and daylight plays an integral role in focusing on different elements of the ceremonies imagined in this space.
“You have a certain vision of an atmosphere you want to create to this defined setting, and light is one of the most efficient and important tools to mould this atmosphere and works in a very specific way that corresponds with your actions when shaping your building,” said Eskild.
And the jury’s verdict is, “What the jury found in this project was a very detailed look at a building in which the concept of daylight in the architecture − through form and tectonics – was convincing. It is beautifully illustrated with delicate handmade sketches and was carefully tested in a scale model.”
The International VELUX Award encourages students of architecture to explore the theme of sunlight and daylight in its widest sense. The Award is presented every second year to promote and celebrate excellence in completed study works. The Award is global and open to any registered student of architecture backed by a teacher from a school of architecture.