MIT students were tasked with designing a solar guest house on the school’s Cambridge, Mass., campus that has the potential to be zero-energy consuming. At Pratt, the assignment last year was to design a next-generation house while reconsidering the skylight as a vital source of illumination. And at RISD, students proposed strategies to rehabilitate and expand an 18th century warehouse into a center for movement and dance.
Three of the schools are back on board for the current academic year. The BAC is repeating its charrettes, RISD students will tackle the retrofit of a 19th century building, and the Pratt studio is doing its work on the contemporary workplace.
Rewarding Experiences “These students bring a fresh perspective and inquisitive nature to their studio projects,” O’Neill says. “The initiative gives me the opportunity to interact with and educate these architects-in-training, to broaden their knowledge base, and come away with a deeper understanding of the role of skylights in bringing natural light into a home or commercial space, as well as a sense of the history of Velux and our company’s commitment to transforming the way people live through the use of natural light.”
The Velux-sponsored studios offer unique learning opportunities, and they also give students a chance at broader exposure within the design community. The work they produce does not languish in their portfolios, offered up for the occasional remark in a job interview. Carnegie Mellon students Roxanna Viray, Joshua Marchman, and Hiroyuki Ichikawa, first, second, and third place winners respectively, were feted at an awards ceremony for their architectural interpretations of the light museum. Carnegie Mellon and RISD also collaborated with Velux on the publication of booklets that document student projects.
Velux offers each participating institution the opportunity to stage a competition, with cash prizes, among students in the sponsored studios. At Pratt last year, the team of Erin Bartling and Jun Pak won a $2,500 grand prize for a project titled “House to Connect.” The project explored variations in the amount and quality of light entering different zones in a house, and played with light through interior wall treatments to create a series of spaces that promote family gathering. Second prize went to students Chelsea Lipham and Richard Colwell for a residence designed to be built into the earth on two sides, harnessing cool and constant soil temperatures, and relying on skylights for daytime lighting. Both projects were featured in “Manufactured Surfaces,” an exhibition of student work at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery in spring 2007.
“Our university partnerships have helped us to connect with the academic realm of the architectural community,” says Tim Miller, president of Velux America. “We believe that by creating a conversation about the role of natural light and ventilation in architecture we can grow our relationship with architects, whether they are experienced practitioners or new to the field.” LINDA MILLER, WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NED CRAMER
Linda Miller is a New York City–based writer on architecture, design, and lighting.
Project Velux-Sponsored Studio on Light Organizations, Ceiling Systems, and Office Ecologies
School Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Degree Bachelor of Architecture
Instructor Michael Kubo