The VELUX Daylight Grant Celebrates Innovative Architecture Graduates
Date
08 Jul 2026
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On Friday June 19th, we attended a day of celebration at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, where over 250 newly graduated candidates in design, architecture, conversation, and architectural technology, together with four PhD graduates, were honored with diplomas.
As part of this, we were happy to be able to award a VELUX Daylight Grant to Albert Rygg Karberg and Anders Rovsing Kristiansen for their project, ‘Kallisperis Hus’ (Cultural Heritage, Transformation and Restoration).
In Albert and Anders’ graduation project Kallisperis House, daylight plays a central and crucial role in the architecture. The transformation project is developed for Athens’ climate, where the sharp and intense light requires a different approach than the more diffuse daylight typical of the Nordic region.
In the extension of Kallisperis House, a breezeway functions both as sun shading and as a social meeting place in front of rooms and living areas. From here, the structure steps down into a pergola and colonnade, connecting the extension with the existing houses across the property and creating shady spots for relaxation. The extension’s building mass thus contributes to a cool and protected courtyard, while the use of deep reveals and shutters creates pleasant indoor spaces for staying in and limits overheating.
Through detailed measurements and studies of local building methods, the project also recreates light effects from early 20th-century Athens in a restoration and transformation of Kallisperis House.
Where the light filters through the light wooden structure in the addition, the existing heavy stone and plaster walls absorb and reflect the light. The treatment of materials, the contrast between heavy and light, thus also becomes a matter of lighting effects and habitation, and shows a well-thought-out understanding of the place, climate, and daylight.
