PRESS RELEASE
April 2011
PhD students put the spotlight on daylight in international symposium
For the very first time, PhD students from all over Europe are gathering together
to put the spotlight on daylight and its effects on people. The venue is the VELUX
Group’s fourth Daylight Symposium in Lausanne on 3 -5 May 2011, when almost
300 participants will meet and discuss daylight.
When the VELUX Group gathers together almost 300 researchers, architects and other participants involved, in one way or another, for its fourth Daylight Symposium, entitled Daylight in a Human Perspective, at Lausanne in Switzerland on 3-5 May 2011, the central issue
will be the effect of daylight on people.
For the very first time, more than 30 PhD students from all over Europe will gather together
for the introductory Academic Forum of the VELUX Group’s fourth daylight symposium. The
forum will provide a platform for PhD students to swap experiences and share knowledge in
the science of daylight.
We in Europe today spend 80-90% of our time indoors and studies have shown that if we
receive too little daylight exposure in the course of a day, we end up with poor health, reduced quality of sleep and significantly disturbed circadian rhythms. A series of research
results indicates that low exposure to daylight can lead to poor health and well-being for
much of the population. This is manifested in deteriorating quality of sleep, depression, fatigue and reduced social skills.
The quantity of light entering our buildings also has a great effect on their indoor climate.
Already today, one house in three has elements of a poor indoor climate that lead to asthma, allergies and winter depression.
Daylight is important to our circadian rhythms
For decades, daylight in buildings has been used to enable us to go about our daily activities
unhindered, to reinforce the architecture of a room and to grant us a view onto our surroundings – and to support our well-being. However, the latest studies show that daylight is
vitally important to our health and well-being.
“Nowadays, we can define precisely the daylight conditions of a room but we do not know,
with the same degree of certainty, how much daylight is needed to fix our daily rhythm and
safeguard our health – or when it is needed. The Daylight Symposium is a step along the
way to helping the VELUX Group ensure that the latest international findings on the subject
reach all the corners of the academic world – and the PhD forum is an important element in
that,” says Per Arnold Andersen, architect and Head of the Daylight, Energy and Indoor Climate Section in the VELUX Group.
The Academic Forum for the PhD students will give them the opportunity to make their own
presentations and conduct debates with leading experts in the field.
PRESS RELEASE
In the course of the two days, the symposium will provide scientific updates on the international efforts being made to determine the effects of daylight on building users. Examples of
architecture will be presented, along with instances of how users experience that architecture.
The Academic Forum for PhD students is part of the VELUX Group’s work with the international academic student world. One other example of this work is the International VELUX
Award (IVA) for architect students from all over the world that the Group has organised
every other year since 2004.
The Daylight Symposium is held every second year with the purpose of establishing an international platform for the development of knowledge, views and visions. It, too, is a part
of the VELUX Group’s vision to take an active part in the continued debate among professionals on the quality of daylight in our buildings. Read more at www.thedaylightsite.com.
About the VELUX Group
The VELUX Group creates better living environments with daylight and fresh air through the
roof. The VELUX product programme contains a wide range of roof windows and skylights,
along with solutions for flat roofs. The Group also supplies many types of decoration and
sun screening, roller shutters, installation products, products for remote control and thermal
solar panels for installation in roofs. The VELUX Group, which has manufacturing companies
in 11 countries and sales companies in just under 40 countries, represents one of the
strongest brands in the global building materials sector and its products are sold in most
parts of the world. The VELUX Group has about 10,000 employees and is owned by VKR
Holding A/S, a limited company wholly owned by foundations and family. For more details,
visit www.velux.com.
Contact:
Lone Ellersgaard, Corporate Press Manager
VELUX Gruppen
Ådalsvej 99
DK-2970 Hørsholm
Tel office: +45 45 16 40 00
Tel direct: +45 45 16 48 18
Tel mobile: +45 40 40 71 56
@:[email protected]
www: www.velux.com