Interview with 2024 Global Winner - Daylight Investigations
Following the announcement of the global winners of the International VELUX Award for students of architecture 2024, we talked to Anders Eugen Lund, student from The Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen, Denmark and the global winner in the category of Daylight Investigations with his project ‘Solar Sinter’.
He tell us about his experience of working with the theme of daylight, its contribution to his professional development and what his message is to the students preparing to participate in the next cycle of the competition.
Can you describe to us your experience of developing your project and about working with the daylight as a theme?
The project was developed as a part of the fieldwork arranged every year by my master programme ‘Architecture and Extreme Environments’ at the Royal Danish Academy. We went to India outside the monsoon season, giving us plenty of daylight to explore. When I identified the problem of the plaster walls being washed away the solution definitely did not come as a stroke of genius. I went through a lot of failed solutions and iterations before landing on the final design, and there are still a lot of things I would do that I think would improve the concept.
I feel like the project viewed daylight almost as a mass, capable of being harnessed and directed. This focus on daylight as a resource for creating or improving building technique more than viewing it a spacious element was very motivating throughout the process.
"This focus on daylight as a resource for creating or improving building technique more than viewing it a spacious element was very motivating throughout the process."
What do you think you have gained, both personally and professionally, by taking part in this competition?
Personally, I think the experience of joining and attending a competition has given me insight to how much work goes into it: curating one’s board, making a presentation and then presenting it to the jury definitely gives me a bit of a confidence boost, and lowers the threshold of sometime doing it again. Even though the experience was intense it definitely felt like a very safe space to compete and develop in.
I think the main takeaway was meeting the other regional winners and seeing how they viewed daylight. It definitely opened my mind to so many different perspectives on daylight which was very inspiring.
“It definitely opened my mind to so many different perspectives on daylight, which was very inspiring."
What are the next steps in your education/career? Do you have any exciting plans or wishes for the future?
As for now I will stay in school to finish my Masters degree. The course is called Architecture and Extreme Environments, so right now I dream of continuing working in areas with a challenging environment after my degree.
I also hope to get the chance to develop a Solar Sinter prototype 2.0 sometime in the future. Learning from the mistakes and underdeveloped aspects of the first prototype experiment, I still believe the concept has a lot of potential.
"My advice would be to make a project that you are passionate about, and not to dwell too much on trying to fit ones project into what you think the jury would like."
Do you have any advice for students considering participating in the 2024 competition?
My advice would be to make a project that you are passionate about, and not to dwell too much on trying to fit ones project into what you think the jury would like. I was very much in doubt about whether my project was enough on topic to be accepted, but in the end I think that was some of what made it successful. Watching the other regional winners, I think the case was the same with them.
I would also definitely encourage others to join the competition, it’s a great learning experience with tons of support throughout, and a great opportunity to meet other architecture students from around the world.
