The 2026 edition of Light of Tomorrow by VELUX, a biennial international student ideas competition endorsed by the UIA since 2004, has unveiled its regional winners and special prize recipients. Built around the theme “Light of Tomorrow”, the competition invites architecture students to explore daylight as a fundamental architectural resource — one capable of addressing today’s key challenges: climate change, resource efficiency and human wellbeing.
From hundreds of submissions received from architecture schools worldwide, the jury selected eight outstanding projects, recognising their innovative use of daylight, depth of research and clarity of architectural thinking.
Regional winners
- Woven Time — Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Kenya)
- The Light as Memory — Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Chile)
- Sun the Quilt — Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology (China)
- Filtered Light — National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture (Ukraine)
- Woven Light — Lund University (Sweden)
Special prizes
- Daylight in New Buildings: Reclaiming the Tropical Plaza, Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
- Daylight in Building Transformations: Folding Light, Tsinghua University (China)
- Daylight Investigations: Evaporative Cooling Celosia, Royal Danish Academy (Denmark)
Next stop: Barcelona
Each winning team receives €3,000, with €500 awarded to the supervising tutor. The eight winners are now invited to a workshop in Barcelona, where they will present their projects to the international jury during the UIA World Congress of Architects. Following the presentations, one global winner will be selected and awarded €4,000 (students) and €1,000 (tutor).
Find out more here.