Winners of the Dutch Daylight Award 2026 Announced

The winners of the Dutch Daylight Award 2026 were announced on September 30 at the Metaal Kathedraal in Utrecht. The biennial award is organized by the Stichting Dutch Daylight . Fenix, designed by MAD Architects, EGM and Bureau Polderman, won the award in the category for projects larger than 1,000 m², while Light House, designed by Studioninedots, won in the category for projects smaller than 1,000 m².

Light House: Category Under 1,000 m²

The jury assessed three highly diverse projects in the small-project category. One project involved the redevelopment of a national heritage site, transforming a neglected area into a remarkable hidden gem within the city. The surprise of a glass volume inserted between existing weathered walls, creating a strong connection between inside and outside, was particularly captivating.

The two other nominations were new-build projects. Energiehuis Deltawind felt larger than its category would suggest due to its impressive spatial volume relative to its floor area. The building offers beautiful views at its ends and serves as an exemplary model of ambitious circular design through its energy concept, material use, and ecological performance. The project’s most striking daylight qualities are expressed on the façade rather than in the interior.

In Light House, daylight is not merely an organizing principle but an essential element shaping every aspect of the design. Light moves through the spaces in a magical way, down to the smallest detail. Remarkably, the submission photographs were taken primarily under overcast conditions, revealing a soft and diffuse light filtered through glass blocks. During the jury visit, conducted in sunny weather, the glass blocks animated adjacent walls while reflections from the kitchen surfaces brought the tiled finishes to life. The result is a fascinating and enchanting experience that encourages visitors to keep looking and to spend more time in the house. For this reason, Light House was awarded the Dutch Daylight Award 2026.

Photos by ©Sebastian van Damme

Fenix: Category Over 1,000 m²

Among the five nominated projects in this category, two were new-build developments and three were transformations of historic buildings. In the new-build projects, daylight, visual comfort, and the way light enters and shapes the space were clearly integral to the design process. These solutions were based both on experiential qualities and on quantitative analysis supported by parametric design methods.

The transformation projects each addressed daylight in a unique manner. In the University Library of the University of Amsterdam, visitors experience the central space between historic façades as if standing in an outdoor public square. In the Dutch Photography Museum, daylight gradually filters downward through the building and fully reveals itself only at the top.

However, the project that most captivated the jury was Fenix. The carefully designed interaction between the spectacular steel “tornado” structure and the serene daylight flooding the monumental halls creates a magical and mesmerizing spatial experience. The jury was fascinated by this compelling dialogue between architecture and daylight.

The winner of the Dutch Daylight Award 2026 in the large-project category is therefore Fenix.

Jury

The jury consisted of:

• Richelle de Jong (DP6 Architectuurstudio)
• Dikkie Scipio (KAAN Architecten), representing the previous award winners
• Frank Willems (WillemsenU)
• Floortje Arnts (designer and building physicist)
• Ronald Tilleman (photographer)
• Paul van Bergen (DGMR)
• Peter Lindeman (Rodeca Systems)
• Bart Heilings (Reynaers Aluminium)

The jury visited all shortlisted projects in person before reaching its final decision.

Nominations

Category Under 1,000 m²

• architecten|en|en – Atelier Custers
• Studioninedots – Light House
• RO&AD Architecten – Energiehuis Deltawind

Category Over 1,000 m²

• MVSA Architects in collaboration with Buro van Stigt – University Library UvA
• WDJArchitecten & Renner Hainke Wirth Zirn Architekten – Dutch Photography Museum in Pakhuis Santos
• RoosRos Architecten & ArchiTech Company – Gilde College
• Studio Prototype – Rijkskantoor Justitie Zaanstad
• MAD Architects, EGM & Bureau Polderman – Fenix

Sponsors

The Dutch Daylight Award 2026 was made possible through the support of Reynaers Aluminium and Rodeca Systems.

Winners of the Dutch Daylight Student Award 2026 Announced

The winners of the second edition of the Dutch Daylight Student Award 2026 were also announced on September 30 at the Metaal Kathedraal in Utrecht. Awards were presented in two categories: Design and Research.

Student Award – Design Luminous Minds

The design project Luminous Minds convincingly demonstrates how daylight can serve as an integral component of architectural design. The project’s strength lies in its clear translation of an extensive analysis into compelling visualizations and design principles, creating a strong connection between research, analysis, and the final design proposal.

Daylight is not introduced as an addition but serves as one of the project’s primary design drivers. Atria, a reflective core, daylight-guiding elements, modified roof forms, and carefully designed façade openings are employed to improve daylight access, views, visual comfort, and well-being. Artificial lighting is incorporated within the same overall strategy. The project’s extensive studies and simulations provide a convincing foundation for the design decisions.

A key strength is its integrated approach to daylight, users, cognitive performance, and the existing heritage context. The effects of the proposed interventions are clearly communicated and quantified. While further substantiation of the practical and constructional feasibility of the extensive interventions could strengthen the proposal, the submission successfully integrates research and design in a highly convincing manner.

Luminous Minds was submitted by Bart Johannes Mooren.

Student Award – Research
Revealing Absence

Revealing Absence is an original research project that uses daylight as an active variable in the development and evaluation of a new restoration material. The study focuses on the relationship between light, material perception, and the application of cast glass in a heritage context.

A particularly strong aspect of the research is the investigation of properties such as light transmission, colour, reflection, and internal structure under varying daylight conditions, seasons, times of day, and viewing distances. Artificial lighting was also included, allowing the complete visual behaviour of the material to be assessed.

The combination of material experiments, optical measurements, lighting simulations, and expert evaluations provides the project with a rigorous methodological foundation. Daylight is not only used to evaluate the material but functions as a true design parameter, determining how the material relates to the existing heritage building.

The originality of the research question and the innovative investigation of material properties through daylight make this project highly distinctive, successfully bringing together material development, conservation, and daylight research.

Revealing Absence was submitted by Celia Leoudi.