2016 Daylight Awards

The Daylight Award "honors and supports daylight research and daylight in architecture, for the benefit of human health, well-being and the environment. The award puts specific emphasis on the interrelation between theory and practice." The €100,000 Architecture and Research awards are presented every other year by the non-profit, private charitable foundations, Villum Fonden, Velux Fonden, and Velux Stiftung.

The Daylight in Architecture Award recognizes "Steven Holl’s inspiring work [that is] based on a continuous process of exploration ... expresses the atmospheric qualities of space and light ... [skillfully translates] these qualities into spatial identity, attained through his experimentation and curiosity in the phenomenology and perception of space."

Upon being named the Architecture laureate, Holl said, "I am deeply honored to have been selected as the laureate for Daylight in Architecture. Space is oblivion without light. A building speaks through the silence of perception orchestrated by light. Luminosity is as integral to its spatial experience as porosity is integral to urban experience."

The Daylight Research Award is awarded to "to individuals or smaller groups of scientists who have distinguished themselves as outstanding contributors to internationally recognized daylight research." Marilyne Andersen is a Professor of Sustainable Construction Technologies and Dean of the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL). Her research at EPFL, carried out with the Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance-Integrated Design (LIPID), involves "not just discovering and quantifying the relationship between daylighting design strategies and building performance but also addressing and analyzing daylight effects on the health, well-being, performance and experience of building users," per the award. 

To watch a short video with comments from the jury (Herbert Klumpner, Stephen Selkowitz, Aki Kawasaki, Florence Lam, Koen Steemers, James Carpenter, and Per Olaf Fjeld), visit The Daylight Award website.