Exchange for Change: Turning Ideas into Action

On 17 September 2025, thought and action leaders within architecture, engineering and sustainability gathered at LKR Innovation House in Østbirk to ask the question: How do we create the buildings we need for the planet we want? 

 

At the event, Exchange for Change, the conversation moved from sharing knowledge to tangible next steps, marking the the next VELUX Action Leadership agenda: Re:Living, an experimental approach to existing buildings, to be shifted from depleting to regenerative for people and planet.

 

 

A day designed for momentum 

The programme opened with Lotte Clemmen Christensen, Senior Vice President, Global Product Management & Buildings of the Future at VELUX, who introduced Re:Living and set the scene for the opportunities within the building industry while inviting attendees to collaborate and shape the agenda. 

 

Boris SchadeBünsow, Chief Editor of Bauwelt, moderated Living Talks, framing the stakes for Europe’s building stock and the opportunity ahead. Heidi Merrild, Post-Doctoral Researcher at Aarhus School of Architecture shared a white paper on research conducted with LKR Innovation House as a case, before Mette Tony of Praksis Architects held a key note, taking the attendees through the architectural vision and transformation of the building. Tours gave participants a closer look at the strategies embedded in LKR Innovation House, an ideal backdrop for a day dedicated to rethinking the renovation of our existing building stock.

 

In the afternoon, Lone Feifer, Director of Sustainable Buildings at VELUX and Nadja Pass from Concopia opened the roundtable series, inviting participants to exchange for change across disciplines. A session on Re:Living followed with Ambra Guglietti, VELUX, Zsolt Toth, BPIE, Rasmus Søgaard, Artelia, and Kasper Bjørkskov, No Objectives, introducing the framework and its practical implications for Europe’s existing building stock.

 

The afternoon continued with a panel debate on futureproofing buildings featuring Joseph Allen, Professor at Harvard University, Marcel Schweiker, Professor at RWTTH Aachen University and Ditte Lysgaard Vind, Chief Innovation and Science Officer at BLOXHUB, moderated by Lone Feifer and concluded with Concopialed “walk & talks” in Nature Østbirk to discuss how we can change the pace and scale of renovations .

 

 

Introducing Re:Living: from “less harm” to positive impact

Re:Living is the next step in our Action Leadership agenda at VELUX, built on decades of our healthybuilding research, fullscale experiments, and the experiences from Living Places. Where Living Places demonstrates how newbuild can radically lower carbon and improve indoor climate, Re:Living extends beyond this ambition, to experiment on how renovations can actively restore ecological systems while improving human wellbeing. In practice, that means shifting from an extractive model, where materials and landscapes are routinely depleted towards a restorative one that recovers, renovates and ultimately revitilizes. Europe must dramatically increase the scale and pace of renovation to meet climate goals, while protecting affordability and health. Re:Living poses questions to new pathways and approaches to renovation. How can we rethink renovation and strive for a future that goes beyond less harm and shifts towards creating positive impact?

 

 

Why LKR Innovation House? 

Hosting Exchange for Change at LKR Innovation House connected with the day’s message: transformation is possible now. The building itself is a case study in the value in choosing renovation over demolition: saving materials, a bright and airy space with a healthy indoor climate and completed with a significantly lower carbon footprint than Danish building regulations for offices, demonstrating that better buildings can start with what we already have.

 

 

What’s next

Exchange for Change marks a starting point, not a destination. The insights gathered in roundtables, the debate on futureproofing, and the field conversations in Nature Østbirk contribute to the questions we must ask to rethink the way we renovate our existing buildings to better support people and the planet.