International VELUX Award 2008: Winners announced

Venice, Italy, November 11 (ots/PRNewswire) - Three winners and
eight honourable mentions were presented and honoured at an Award
event in Venice. Reilly O'Neil Hogan from the US won first prize.
Chinese Ruan Hao and Xiong Xing won second prize, and Dean MacGregor
from Portugal took third prize.

(Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081111/327211-a )
(Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081111/327211-b )
(Photo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081111/327211-c )

In his project "Embodied Ephemerality" (i.e. lasting for a short
time) Reilly O'Neil Hogan discusses how to challenge the daily city
routines by getting off the subway at a new (wrong) station. How when
you are forced to drift from your routine, you perceive the city with
new eyes - in this case the Path station in Lower Manhattan. Hogan
experiments with the projection of sunlight into the underground
station to elevate the daily experience of the users.

"I feel that light and space have a profound effect on people's
every day experience. It has a universal appeal through time, place
and belief, which gives light an incredible power as a material to
enliven architecture with something greater than ourselves," says
first prize winner Reilly O'Neil Hogan about his project.

Chinese Ruan Hao and Xiong Xing took second prize with their
project "Interface Repairing - Light Festival" celebrating sunlight
in the city. And third prize went to Dean MacGregor from Portugal for
his project "Light has a body", taking the essence of light and
focusing on the way that light enters and exposes itself through the
refraction of water.

In addition to the three prize winners the jury awarded eight
honourable mentions from eleven different countries representing
Europe, North America and Asia.

The total number of 686 projects from 244 schools in 46 countries
represented a great variation of responses to the theme "Light of
Tomorrow". Jury chairman, Hani Rashid, remarks on the award winners:

"I am very pleased with the winners because they cover three
distinct parts of the entire propagation that we see in The
International VELUX Award. We have the practical, the visionary and
the poetic approaches among the winners that somehow sum up what all
the students were after in their projects."

Promoting discussions on daylight

VELUX has always had a strong wish to facilitate the debate on
natural daylight and fresh air in architecture. Michel Langrand, who
was VELUX representative on the jury, explains:

"To succeed today as a company you need to have a vision or a
project that goes beyond the product that you sell. What comes to us
is to recognize the importance of daylight and fresh air through the
roof into the building. So it is not only about selling windows, it
is more about how important it is to have daylight and fresh air at
an affordable price and still create the best living environment for
people."

The International VELUX Award for Students of Architecture takes
place every second year, next time in 2010. All winning projects are
presented in the Yearbook published for the Award event. All Award
entries are exhibited on http://www.velux.com/iva.

Detailed information about the winners, photos, and graphics are
available for download from the press section in the above mentioned
website.

About VELUX

VELUX creates better living environments with daylight and fresh
air through the roof. Our product programme contains a wide range of
roof windows and skylights, along with solutions for flat roofs. In
addition, VELUX offers many types of decoration and sun screening,
roller shutters, installation products, products for remote control
and thermal solar panels for installation in roofs. VELUX, which has
manufacturing companies in 10 countries and sales companies in just
under 40 countries, is 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 more than 10,000 employees and is
owned by VKR Holding A/S. VKR Holding A/S is a limited company wholly
owned by foundations and family. For more details, visit
http://www.velux.com.

For further information, please contact:
Lone Ellersgaard
VELUX A/S
Adalsvej 99
DK-2970 Horsholm
Tel office: +45-45-16-40-00
Tel direct: +45-45-16-48-18
Tel mob: +45-40-40-71-56
lone.ellersgaard@velux.com

ots Originaltext: VELUX
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
For further information, please contact:, Lone Ellersgaard, VELUX
A/S, Adalsvej 99, DK-2970 Horsholm, Tel office: +45-45-16-40-00, Tel
direct: +45-45-16-48-18, Tel mob: +45-40-40-71-56,
lone.ellersgaard@velux.com