Launched for the second time, in collaboration with the International Union of Architects and the European Association for Architectural Education, this biennial award is open to students of architecture the world over. Through this initiative, VELUX seeks to open a debate, to stimulate reflection and re-think daylight as a crucial and primordial element of architectural design. Focused on the general theme: "Light of tomorrow", the aim of this prize is to promote exemplary student projects, rewarding the authors as well as their teachers..

Jury
The jury was composed of prestigious architects, Kengo Kuma (Japan), Róisín Heneghan (Ireland), Omar Rabie (Egypt), Douglas Steidl (USA, out-going AIA President), representing the UIA, Per Olaf Fjeld (Norway, EAAE Vice-President) and Massimo Buccilli, General Manager VELUX Italia.

Velux in Bilbao
2037 registrations were received by the organisers, from 496 schools in 92 countries. 557student teams from 225 schools in 53 countries submitted a project to the jury, which met in Madrid on 20 June 2006. Three prizes and seventeen mentions were awarded. The official awards ceremony was held at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, on 23 October 2006, in the presence of jury members and numerous personalities amongst whom, Gaétan Siew, UIA President. Participants also had the opportunity of assisting at the departure of the around the world solo race, VELUX 5 Oceans.

Denmark, Spain and the United Kingdom take the first three prizes

		1st prize: A museum of photography Student: Louise Grønlund Teacher: Kjeld Vindum School of Architecture at the Royal Academy of fine Arts (Denmark)
		Images:
		2nd prize: Reading place in the forest Student: Gonzalo Pardo Teacher: Atxu Amman Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (Spain)
		Images:
		3rd prize: Light invisible bridges Student: Anastasia Karandinou Teacher: Dorian Wiszniewski School of Arts, Culture, Environment and Architecture of the University of Edinburgh (Scotland - United Kingdom)
		Images:

The winning projects and all submissions can be viewed on the competition website:
http://iva.velux.com/AboutVELUX/History/2006