Award brief
Light of Tomorrow by VELUX is a competition and award for students of architecture, which runs every second year. In 2026, the competition celebrates its 12th edition!
Students of architecture from around the world are invited to register their participation and join the community of more than 6,500 student teams who have participated so far.
Registration and submissions for Light of Tomorrow by VELUX 2026 are now open.
Register here and start your journey.
Light of Tomorrow by VELUX wants to encourage and challenge students of architecture to explore the theme of daylight – and to create a deeper understanding of this specific and ever-relevant source of energy, light and life.
The competition and award celebrates and promotes excellence in completed study works. It welcomes projects that celebrate the privilege of being a student; with curiosity and with the willingness to think “out of the box” – exploring the theme of daylight in the widest perspectives and understanding of the subject , considering the social, sociological, and environmental dimension of light.
Light of Tomorrow by VELUX is a global open ideas competition and award. In the competition phase, 5 regional prizes will be awarded to the best projects from the UIA member regions 1) Western Europe, 2) Eastern Europe and the Middle East, 3) the Americas, 4) Asia+ Oceania and 5) Africa, plus 3 special prizes: ‘Natural light in new buildings’, ‘Daylight in Transformations’ and ‘Daylight Investigations’.
In the award phase, one of these eight winners will be awarded as a global winner.
The competition and award is not restricted to the use of VELUX products. Innovative thinking and use of specific VELUX components as daylight providers will however be within the scope and the jury will be allowed to give prizes to the best projects in the following topics:
Natural light in new buildings, Daylight in building transformation, Daylight investigations.
The competition and award wants to acknowledge not only the students but their teachers as well. Therefore, teachers of the projects also receive prize money and recoginition.
The total prize money available for the competition is € 33.000 – split between a total of 8 prizes: 5 regional prizes plus 3 special prizes, and 1 global award.
Five prizes for best * regional projects: € 3.000 and a certificate for the student team, and € 500 for the teacher/professor
* UIA regions: Americas, Asia and Oceania, Africa, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and Middle East
1 prize for the best project demonstrating `Natural light in new buildings´: € 3.000 and a certificate for the student team, and € 500 for the teacher/professor
1 prize for the best project demonstrating `Daylight in building transformation´: € 3.000 and a certificate for the student team, and € 500 for the teacher/professor
1 prize for the best project demonstrating `Daylight investigations´: € 3.000 and a certificate for the student team, and € 500 for the teacher/professor
The 8 prize winners will be invited to the award event and workshop , where they will present their projects to the jury, to compete for the 1 global award.
As a result of the presentations, the jury will honour the project that, overall, has demonstrated and presented the most convincing idea – – with a € 4.000 Award and Certificate for the students and € 1.000 for the teacher/professor. The award money is not subject to VAT.
“Light of Tomorrow” is the overall theme of the Light of Tomorrow by VELUX 2026. The competition and award seeks to challenge the future of daylight in the built environment with an open-minded and experimental approach. Therefore, the competition and award seeks to widen the boundaries of daylight in architecture, including aesthetics, functionality, sustainability, and the interaction between buildings and the environment.
Each project is free to explore the theme of daylight in the widest perspectives and understanding of the subject.
Projects submitted may demonstrate applicable principles for providing daylight and sunlight into either new or existing buildings. This could include, for example, the effects of building construction and context of the site, shape and dimensions, window openings, screens, shadings, interior divisions, materials, and external conditions.
Projects may also additionally consider how to work with indoor climate and natural ventilation in their proposals in connection with daylight and sunlight.
Projects may also be broader investigations that look at the physical properties of light, basics of optics and materials, as well as technological developments, new materials, storage or transportation of daylight. This can also include the use of daylight for functional, recreational, cultural, or spiritual use and the effect on state of mind, health and well-being and behaviour over time and seasons.
The jury will evaluate the projects in accordance with the following criteria:
- The work with daylighting as a premise for architecture
- How the project is researched and documented
- How the project addresses contemporary and future challenges
- The level of experimentation and innovation
- The overall graphic presentation of the project, how the project presents itself.
Take into account that your project should present itself digitally as the jury evaluation is performed online.
The competition and award is open to any registered student of architecture – individual or team – all over the world. We encourage multi-disciplinary teams including e.g. engineering, design, and landscaping. Every student or student team must be backed and granted submission by a teacher from a school of architecture.
The competition and award welcomes projects from individuals or groups of students enrolled as bachelor’s or master’s students at a named university or school of architecture during the academic year 2025/26. PhD students and VELUX employees cannot participate.
There is no limit to the number of entries from each school, but participating schools should ensure the quality of submitted study projects, e.g. by making a prejudgment.
Project submissions must be undertaken solely by one member of the team, referred to as the Team Leader. The project must be supported by a named teacher, tutor, or professor from a named university or school of architecture. As part of the submission process, the Team Leader will need to provide details of the school, team members, and the teacher backing the project.
The proposal must be comprehensively presented in one image file, which depicts the project and includes a written description that explains the idea and details.
You need to submit:
- One image file, which depicts your project
- A description of your project, no longer than 800 words, in English.
- A thumbnail image
- A Banner image
The incorporation of videos, QR codes, external links, or similar types will not be accepted. Proposals containing such elements will have this information excluded from evaluation.
The jury will only look at the image, so we recommend you include all text on the poster.
The thumbnail and the Banner images will only be used on the project showcase page on this website after the competition has ended.
Please note: No text, names of entrants, teachers, schools or countries are allowed on the Thumbnail and Banner images.
If you would like to be tagged on Instagram or LinkedIn when we post images of your project, feel free to include your handles during the submission process.
Project image file
Image specifications file format JPEG
File format: JPEG
File extension: .jpg
Layout: Landscape
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Dimensions: 9600 pixels wide x 5400 pixels high (32 x 18 inch in 300 ppi)
Colour space: RGB (Preferred destination/mode Adobe RBG 1998)
Effective resolution: 300 ppi (pixels per inch)
Maximum file size: 150 MB
See image examples HERE
To ensure anonymity, no names of entrants, teachers, schools or countries are allowed on any part of the submitted material. The registration and submission system of Light of Tomorrow by VELUX has been constructed to ensure anonymity of the participants throughout the process from registration to after the jury meeting.
The competition and award, presented every second year since 2004, is organised in co-operation with UIA, International Union of Architects, and the competition concept is based on UIA rules for international competitions.
Submission of entries must be made exclusively through the D/A competition platform
The user account provided during registration will allow participants to submit their entries via this secure online platform.
Participants are required to maintain anonymity while submitting their entries. The names of competitors must not appear on any part of the submitted materials.
After completing the submission, applicants will receive a confirmation email. Please note that modification to the application will not be possible once it has been submitted.
The competition platform ensures anonymity of applicants to the jury, however, access is available to the platform manager.
The organizer will individually notify all winners immediately after selection by the jury.
The team leader of winning projects should ensure that they are contactable the day after the jury meeting – 29th April 2026 – in order to allow sufficient time to arrange visas, if necessary.
Communication, photos, and films of winners and winning projects, will be published on the D/A website, as well as in architectural magazines, newspapers, webpages, and other relevant media after the announcement of the winners.
By entering Light of Tomorrow by VELUX 2026, the participants accept that the UIA and the organizer – The VELUX Group – may publish and disseminate the submitted projects and photos of the participants in analogue and digital form.