Light of Tomorrow by VELUX Global winner announced

The VELUX Group proudly announces the global winner of Light of Tomorrow by VELUX 2026:

‘Sun the Quilt’ by XU Qicheng, LUO Jun, GAO Rui, RUAN Guoqiang, ZHANG Xuanyi & CAI Kunhong

An international jury of leading architects – including James Carpenter (US), Liene Jākobsone (LV), Níall McLaughlin (IE), Oya Atalay Franck (CH), Doris Wälchli (CH), and Elena Arregui Jaeger (VELUX, ES) selected the global winner following live presentations at the UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona on 29 June. 

The 8 finalists were chosen among 539 daylight projects, submitted by students from 345 schools of architecture.

After presenting their projects and engaging in a live dialogue with the jury, each team was evaluated on the strength of concept, design thinking, and innovative use of daylight, and one project was selected as a global winner. 

The global winner receives a prize of €4,000, with an additional €1,000 awarded to the supervising teacher. The award was officially announced during the student prize ceremony at the UIA World Congress of Architects, bringing together and celebrating the next generation of architectural talent from around the world.  

Global winner

Region 4: Sun the Quilt

Students: XU Qicheng, LUO Jun, GAO Rui, RUAN Guoqiang, ZHANG Xuanyi & CAI Kunhong 
School: Xi’an University Of Architecture And Technology
Teacher: HAN Qingsong
Country: China
Region: Asia & Oceania

Project description
Sun the Quilt rethinks the ordinary domestic act of drying textiles, food and household objects within
dense urban environments. The project introduces an adaptable façade system that combines daylight modulation, ventilation, shading and drying into a single architectural element. Responding to the realities of contemporary high-density housing, the proposal transforms an overlooked everyday activity into part of the building envelope itself. Adjustable frames create an intermediate climatic zone between interior life and the city beyond. Through its simplicity and climatic responsiveness, the project repositions architecture as a framework for daily human experience.

Jury reasoning
The jury highlights the project’s potential to become a real living solution, where the architects go to the bottom of a problem, work it through, take advice, and turn it into something that can live and thrive in the world. It begins with a lived and valued experience and shows architecture that makes poetry out of the everyday.
They note that the team has proposed a technological solution to an existing problem, situation, or culture. By combining the real-life need to ventilate these quilts and turning them into shading elements, the project becomes convincing. It carries subcultural depth, addressing an existing problem and proposing a low technological solution that feels adaptable and grounded.
The jury also appreciates the in out quality, the human touch, and the overall intention behind it, which reinforces why the project stands out as a thoughtful and meaningful response to a real condition.

The architects have gone through a problem, gotten to the bottom of that problem, worked it through, and then made it into something that can live and thrive in the world. – says jury member Níall McLaughlin (IE)

See the full project page