Nothing enhances a design like natural light. RIBA Journal and VELUX invite your entries to the Daylight from Above Awards to showcase the best and most effective naturally toplit architecture
Have you completed a project where daylight is central to a successful outcome? The 2025 Daylight from Above awards, organised by VELUX in partnership with RIBAJ, celebrates projects where the arrangement, use and enjoyment of buildings has been transformed by the introduction of natural light as an integral element of a larger architectural idea.
We are seeking outstanding examples in two categories: Light, Space and Atmosphere; and Heritage Conservation. Winners in each category will receive a £5000 prize, with £1000 for commended entries. Submit your projects using the form below before the deadline of 24 February 2025.
Category 1: Light, Space and Atmosphere
Top-light can produce startling beauty in interior spaces, and add skyscapes and a sense of the weather to the architect’s palette. It can also be the key that unlocks opportunity in spaces deep inside a building’s plan, or on constrained sites. The Light, Space and Atmosphere category will recognise projects where daylight design has played a decisive role in the transformation of domestic spaces.
Eligibility and assessment criteria
The Light, Space and Atmosphere category is open to new and adapted residential projects in the UK, completed in the last three years, that incorporate any VELUX sloped or flat roof window as part of a considered and creative approach to daylight.
Judges will be looking for projects that show both rigour and imagination in the introduction of natural light. Consideration will be given to: design for daylight to enhance comfort through illumination and control of shadows, contrast and glare; orientation and attention to light direction to manage sun exposure over time; design of interior spaces and surfaces to register the presence and quality of light; the energy impacts of natural light and solar gain; and the skilful use of daylight to enrich both the architecture of a building and life within.
Category 2: Heritage Conservation
Adaptation and renovation of historic and heritage buildings requires special sensitivity. Introducing daylight can not only alter their outward experience, but also require structural adjustment or alterations to interior finishes. A special category in the Daylight From Above awards recognises the first generation of projects that use products from the new VELUX Heritage conservation roof window range to enhance historic and heritage buildings, in sympathy with their character and value.
Eligibility and assessment criteria
Entries to the Heritage Conservation category will be assessed on the skill and judgement with which historic and heritage buildings of any type have been adapted through the introduction of new Heritage conservation roof windows. Consideration will be given to the following: introduction of natural light in ways that enhance the appreciation of existing structure; protection of sensitive or important fabric; placement and installation of roof windows in a considered response to architectural character and local context; strategic use of daylight to prolong or enhance the use and enjoyment of historic and heritage buildings.
Evaluation panel
The evaluation panel is expected to comprise:
Gianni Botsford
Director and head of design at Gianni Botsford Architects, whose work includes outstanding homes such as Light House and House in a Garden, where inventive use of top-light has unlocked difficult, constrained sites
Percy Weston
Architect and co-founder of Surman Weston, whose Peckham House is shortlisted for the 2024 RIBA House of the Year prize
Deniz Beck
Conservation architect, founder of Deniz Beck Partners and of the Sustainable Conservation Trust
Richard Williams
Senior architectural development manager at VELUX
Chair: Chris Foges
Contributing editor, RIBA Journal
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
1. Competition promoter
The Daylight from Above Awards is being run by the RIBA Journal in conjunction with VELUX.
2. Eligibility
The Daylight from Above Awards is open to projects in the UK, completed since November 2021, that meet the criteria for each category detailed at ribaj.com/products/enter-daylight-from-above.
No member or employee of the promoting body, the evaluation panel, or any partner, close associate or employee of them is eligible to compete or assist a competitor.
3. Judges’ decision
The judges’ decision as to winners and commendations is final. Judges are looking for two category winners and may also award additional commendations. Judges reserve the right to declare no winners if entries are of insufficient quality.
4. Evaluation panel
The evaluation panel is expected to be:
In the event of an evaluation panel member being unable to continue to act through illness or any other cause, the RIBA reserves the right to appoint an alternative panel member.
5. Awards timetable
| Awards launch: | 25 November 2024 |
| Submission deadline: | 24 February 2025 14:00 UK time |
| Evaluation of designs with panel and winners agreed: | 12 March 2025 |
| Result announced on ribaj.com: | 30 April 2025 |
6. Disqualification
Submissions shall be excluded from the Awards:
- If an entrant improperly attempts to influence the decision
- If received after the latest time stated under the Submission method (below)
- If, in the opinion of the Evaluation Panel, it does not fulfil the requirements of the competition brief
- If any of the mandatory requirements of the brief and conditions are disregarded.
7. Submission requirements
Entries must include the following:
- A completed entry form, including a text of no more than 400 words, describing the approach to daylighting
- A maximum of 10 images laid out on no more than two A3 sheets, supplied as pdfs. These could include photographs, drawings or other images that are considered helpful to convey the nature of the project.
8. Evaluation criteria
- Entries will be assessed against the criteria detailed on the competition entry page of the RIBA Journal website: www.ribaj.com/products/enter-daylight-from-above
9. Notification of result / publication and publicity
Entrants must not release information on the result to any third parties until after it has been officially announced and permission has been granted from the RIBA. Entrants should note that by entering the competition they are expected to honour the request for confidentiality.
The RIBA and VELUX reserve the right to publicise the Daylight from Above Awards, any submitted project, and the result in any promotional activity, including all social media channels.
You and your collaborators grant to the Royal Institute of British Architects permission to reproduce the material supplied in all formats, in all media and on all platforms in perpetuity, in whole or in part without payment.
10. Copyright
The ownership of copyright will be in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 – ie copyright rests with the author of the submitted text and images.
11. Post-Awards
Winning and commended entries will be published in the RIBA Journal and on ribaj.com; shortlisted entries will be published on ribaj.com and may also be published in the print edition of the RIBA Journal. Winners in both categories will receive £5000, and any commended entries will receive £1000.
12. Enquiries
All enquiries relating to the Daylight from Above Awards should be directed to: competitions.ribaj@riba.org
13. Data
Data will be held by RIBA and VELUX for the purposes of recording participation in the Daylight from Above Awards. The data will be kept throughout the duration of the Awards for the purpose of contacting entrants with updates.
Daylight from Above Award entrants consent for their contact detail to be shared with VELUX for general marketing purposes. Otherwise, information submitted will not be shared with any third party without the express and prior consent of the author. Read the RIBA’s privacy policy.