International VELUX Award 2014 for students of architecture

3rd prize winner – facts and quotes

Project title: Light of HopeTeam: Snezhina Aleksieva, Zhenya Atanasova, Tsvetomira Ivanova, Pavel TsochevSchool: University of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy, Sofia, BulgariaTeacher: Plamen Bratkov

Jury commentsAt least 35 million people in the world are either temporarily or permanently exiled from their homes, living as refugees. The idea of the project is to bring safety and beauty into the lives of the unfortunate living in refugee camps through the use of natural light by making spatial lightweight nets treated with photo-luminising powder charged by sunlight, which allow them glow during night. During daytime, the net will provide shelter from the strong sunlight.

The project deals with a serious topic that we should all be concerned with in today’s world. A practical, rather simple solution can improve the quality of daily life as well as provide se-curity. The team applied a technology that is plausible even though the jury discussed if it would be considered cheap or without environmental concerns.

The project is awarded for its strong idea and the extraordinary and poetic presentation that can only affect us all.

Student quotesThe team behind the project “Light of Hope” represents architecture, science, materials, sociology and languages. All the team members are taking their masters in architecture at the University of Architecture, Construction and Geodesy, Sofia, Bulgaria.

The idea behind “Light of Hope” has been growing in the minds of the team members for quite some time before they decided to enter the International VELUX Award this year.

“The idea brought our team together. The concept of improving the lives of refugees by light was not a post factum for us; it was the engine of creation. Today there are more refugees than at any time since 1994 with the crisis in Syria and many people are living in war zones in inadequate conditions. Our idea is simply to think about those 35 million unfortunate people, to look into their lives, to see how they get by every day and then to find solutions to help them”, says Snezhina Aleksieva, captain of the team.

The real challenge to the team was how they, as creators of spaces and environments, could make a difference to the refugees and give them hope for a better ’tomorrow’.

“It was really important for us to work with the functionality of light. Daylight is often a sym-bol of hope, purity and safety. The idea behind our project is to bring people’s attention to the need of light itself. We found that unconventional methods and thinking were tools to meet the challenge, but using old and long-lasting local traditions as our inspiration”, says Snezhina Aleksieva.

The system that the team created for the refugee camp uses daylight to the maximum, providing shading by day and giving the inhabitants of the camp glows of hope and light during the night. The solar-powered elements treated with special glow pigments and charged during the day required thorough scientific research to make sure the intricate solu-tion worked.

“We spent most of our time on research of the physical properties of light. Every one of us gave something to the concept and made it better. We had many discussions about light and about the social implications of the war in Syria. Probably the greatest challenge was to match the concept and the technology, but we stuck to our vision of adding value to people’s lives”, explains the team captain.

International VELUX Award 2014 for students of architecture

3rd prize winner – facts and quotes

The team feels that being a prize winner is a great recognition for the work that they have done. At the same time, they are eager to see their idea reaching the refugee camps and regard their prize as a major step on the way to realization of their solution.