Seeking to actively respond to the climate-related challenges of the 21st century, VELUX's sustainability strategy includes a series of measurable steps towards positive change as we focus on how buildings can help solve global challenges with sustainable solutions and practical actions. One of these steps is Build for Life, a pioneering, multidisciplinary initiative launched in 2021 to help connect people and the planet through better building design.
The Build for Life 2021 Conference will be held on November 15-17, and is an open invitation to join a global conversation on how buildings can benefit the environment and improve the quality of life for people around the world.
The event will bring together architects, home builders, researchers, and other thought leaders to discuss some of the key challenges and opportunities facing the construction industry now and in the future. The three-day Build For Life conference will feature more than 90 speakers and connect viewers from the global construction industry and beyond. The conference is free for all and will be fully digital with interactive presentations and dialogues.
One vision – Two stages
The Compass Stage
Explore the seven biggest challenges and opportunities in the building industry today, including:
The need for flexibility in design
The shifting role of buildings in our communities
New demands for healthier and more sustainable living spaces
Compass Stage speakers include:
Lidia Morawska (AU)
Distinguished Professor at the Queensland University of Technology
Lidia will share the latest research from the interdisciplinary field of air quality and its impact on our health and the environment in the post-pandemic world, explaining how we can make our homes, schools, and workspaces safe for people around the world.
Joseph Allen (US)
Assistant Professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Joseph will offer fresh thinking about fresh air in buildings, using the latest science and research to make a case for how healthy indoor spaces drive performance and well-being.
Juri Troy (AT)
Professor at HFT Stuttgart, Owner at Juri Troy Architects
Juri will shed light on the value and imperative of designing durable, long-lasting homes. Juri will also show how he created a beacon for sustainable design with his Austrian project, The Sunlight House, which uses good design and an innovative approach to daylight to optimize the building’s indoor climate and energy needs.
The Daylight Symposium Stage
Since 2005, the Daylight Symposium has explored the power of daylight to create healthy and resilient buildings. This year, more than 40 leaders in daylight research and practice come together to answer a single, critical question: how can we bridge the gap between daylight research and design practice?
Daylight Symposium speakers include:
Jakob Strømann Andersen (DK)
Director Innovation & Sustainability, Henning Larsen Architects
Can generative algorithms improve daylight design? Jakob’s presentation will address this question and show how we can run and explore a multitude of daylight designs, sort through the iterations and identify the best ones, all while providing detailed analysis for each proposal.
Manuel Spitschan (UK)
University Research Lecturer, Department of Experimental Psychology at University of Oxford
Manuel will discuss principles of circadian and neuroendocrine phototransduction, and how knowledge gathered from scientific and field studies can be used to support practice in an evidence-based fashion.
Till Roenneberg (DE)
Professor Emeritus, Medical Faculty of the LMU Munich. President, World Federation of Societies for Chronobiology (WFSC)
Till will present learnings from recent studies investigating how we have been impacted by changes in lifestyle and our physical environment while in lock-down during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yvonne de Kort (NL)
Professor and Chair of Environmental Psychology of Human-Technology Interaction, Department of Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)
Yvonne will present the LIGHTCAP project, a European Training Network under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions framework. LIGHTCAP aims to provide a strong, innovative, and necessary impulse to our insights into the intricate and complex relationships between light, perception, attention, and cognition.