Two decades of insights, inspiration, knowledge-sharing and excitement
From a humble start in 2005 the VELUX Daylight Symposium has established itself as the most important, open and cross-disciplinary meeting forum for daylight enthusiasts from all over the world. The biennial symposium is where researchers, architects, lighting consultants, legislators, educators, manufacturers and more - meet each other and share knowledge and insights. The Daylight Symposium has been invaluable for bringing people together and over the course of the multiple events, participants have gotten to know each other across the world.
The two first venues; a typical and modest hotel conference room in Budapest and the prestigious Guggenheim Museum Auditorium in Bilbao were traditional dark rooms. After this start it was decided that every future venue should be a daylit one, also counting for the conference room. Since then, the symposium has been hosted at spectacular, transformed building sites with generous daylight conditions like the `Van Nelle Factory´ in Rotterdam, the `Tobacco Factory´ in London in and `Cafe Moskau´ in Berlin to `Le Carreau Du Temple´ in Paris. And the 2025 symposium will highlight just another spectacular, transformed venue; the former `State Prison´ in Horsens, Denmark.
Previous speakers
At the very first symposium in 2005 in Budapest, moderated by Marc Fontoynont, it was concluded that there was an urgent need for defining a common language among practitioners and researchers. Also, that there was a need for better professional tools and methods to plan, design, and evaluate daylight quality in buildings. The participant will remember the very emotional presentation by Peter Boyce (UK) when he talked about ”The virtues of daylight”.
The symposium in Bilbao in 2007 was dedicated to daylight and education; both to the importance of designing schools with good daylight condition and on the actual education of architects, engineers and lighting designers. Participants will remember the engaged presentation of “Daylighting and student performance” by Lisa Heschong and the elaborated presentation of the perfectly daylit Sonderschule Schwechat presented by Hemma Fasch (A ). Special attention was also given to Richard Hobday´s (UK) presentation “Health, architecture and the sun”
In 2009, in Rotterdam, the symposium was dedicated to daylight, energy efficiency and human health. It was moderated by Jim Benya (US) and Marc Fontoynont (F). Participants will remember the enthusiastic and engaging presentation of “Here comes the sun” by Tor Nørretranders (DK) and the design and redesign of the Van Nelle Design Factory and Zonnestraal Sanatorium presented in a keynote lecture by Wessel de Jonge (NL). Memorable presentations were also “Solar heat versus solar light” by Javier del Rio (CL), and Steven Lockley´s (US) “Circadian Photoreception: More than meets the eye” and not least James Carpenter´s (US) keynote lecture “Constructing the Ephemeral - Light in the Public Realm”.
At the 2011 symposium in Lausanne 2011, in the spectacular Rolex Learning Center designed by SANAA, the overall theme was “Daylight in a Human Perspective”. Again, the sessions were efficiently moderated by Jim Benya and Marc Fontoynont. The lecture by Russel Foster (UK) “Body clocks, light, sleep and health” was a true eye opener for the architects in the auditorium and Will Bruder´s (US) keynote lecture “Light defines the journey of our lives” and Dean Hawkes’ (UK) “The measurable and the unmeasurable” were memorable. Once again, Peter Boyce (UK) took the stage with his talk; “Lemmings, light and health revisited” and a very personal and philosophical presentation was given by Vellachi Ganesan (SG) “The light within”.
In 2013, the symposium moved to The Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen and under the theme “New Eyes on Existing Buildings” it focused specifically on the opportunities and challenges offered by daylight in the retrofit of existing buildings and city structures. Moderated by Marilyne Andersen (CH) and Werner Osterhaus, the symposium had several highlights – not least the opening reception at the Tycho Brahe Planetarium, where Michael Linden-Wørnle (DK) presented the first results of an international research project “The first light”. Michael Pawlyn; (UK) presented “Biomimicry in architectural design” and Lisa Heschong´s “Daylight saving potentials for office buildings”. Also, Koen Steemers´ (UK) presentation “Urban form, energy and daylight availability” is worth to recall.
The Tobacco Factory in London was the venue for the 2015 symposium. Moderated by Florence Lam and Jim Benya the presentations and lectures focused specifically on the challenges faced by how we live our lives with more than 90% of our daily routines happening indoors, and how it affects our synchronization to nature. Among the key lectures from the event were Paul Bogard´s (US) lecture “The End of Night” about light pollution and “Daylight, Perception, Movement and Embodied Experiences” by Olafur Eliasson (DK ). Other memorable presentations were “The Role of Daylight in Today´s Architecture” by David Nelson, Foster and Partners (UK) and “Sustainable Architecture, Modern vs Vernacular Architecture in China” by Song Yehao (CN).
The 7th symposium was held at Café Moskau in Berlin in 2017. It focused on how to transfer knowledge from research into practice, and how this can be accelerated through building policies. Michel Langrand (F) moderated the event, and a memorable keynote lecture was given by Anne Lacaton (F) “Freedom of use” on how to renovate existing buildings with the freedom to occupy a space beyond the functional with light and air. Other important touchdowns were presentations by John Mardaljevic (UK) with “Daylight Research from Knowledge to Practice: The Tortoise and the Guerrilla” and Marilyne Andersen´s (CH) “Dynamics of daylighting inside out”. Omar Gandhi (CA) inspired with his keynote lecture “Using natural light as a tool for creating a strong architectural narrative”, and Dean Hawkes’ (UK) personal story of his own home: “Twenty-five years of circadian living: a case study”.
In 2019 at Le Carreau Du Temple in Paris, the symposium program comprised several parallel sessions with more than 40 speakers and had its biggest audience to date. The program focused on how to create healthy and resilient buildings. Michel Langrand (F) and Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg (US) moderated the event. Among memorable presentations were “Buildings of the Future Need Light and Chronobiology” by Till Roenneberg (D) who, in just one slide, presented the relation between daylight, work and sleep across Europe – as well as a novel study; “The value of Daylight in Office Buildings” presented by Christoph Reinhart (US ). Also “The Rise of Human Centric Lighting” by Kevin Houser (US) is worth to recall – together with the presentations of The Daylight Award laureates 2018 on the stage; Hiroshi Sambuichi (JP) with “Designing with Sun, Wind and Water” and Greg Ward (US) with “The Interaction of Light and Matter in Building Simulations”.
2021 was a year with Covid-19 restrictions and it was neither safe nor sensible to gather people from around the world. Consequently, the symposium was executed as a series of live digital events, broadcasted from a studio in Copenhagen. The event was moderated by Martha Thorne (E) and Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg (US) and many speakers took the `digital stage´ with several memorable presentations; e.g. the very relevant "Lock the Clock: The Effects of Social Restrictions on Daily Timing, Sleep and Wellbeing" by Till Roenneberg, “Daylight, Sunlight & Indoor Pathogens” by Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg (US) and the presentation of Henning Larsen Architects works: Build for Light/Build for Life” by Louis Becker (DK). Also worth mentioning was the presentation by Tim Brown (UK)and Yvonne de Kort (NL) "Recommendations for healthy daily light exposure: scientific basis and applicability”.
Over the years the symposia have gathered thousands of participants and presented hundreds of exciting presentations and keynote lectures, and the above examples are not representative or fair to the multi-facetted approach to daylight design and daylight research that have been shared and explored over those 20 years.
Interdisciplinarity - the collaboration between disciplines that usually not meet each other in traditional conferences - has been a key to the success of the symposia. A milestone will be passed with the 10th VELUX Daylight Symposium in `Fængslet´ (The Prison) in Horsens, Denmark in 2025. It will celebrate two decades of exchange of knowledge, inspiration and excitement and we believe that the event will further spark relevant conversations and initiate wider collaborations between disciplines also in the years to come.
