RIAI Awards Gold Sponsor VELUX - Designing with Daylight

Designing with daylight is VELUX's long-standing expertise and there are several reasons to integrate rooflights:

Rooflights improve comfort, performance and sustainability: Daylight and fresh air are no longer “nice-to-haves” in architecture — they are fundamental drivers of building performance, occupant wellbeing and long‑term sustainability. As expectations around comfort, energy efficiency and spatial quality continue to rise, architects are increasingly turning to the roof to unlock new design potential.

Daylight that reaches deeper: When light enters from above, it behaves differently. A flat-roof window can deliver up to three times as much daylight as a façade window of the same size, distributing light more evenly and pushing it deeper into the floor plan. This makes rooflights particularly effective in extensions, deep-plan homes and single‑storey spaces where façade openings are limited. The result is brighter, healthier interiors with reduced reliance on artificial lighting.

Fresh air that works with the building: Roof windows can also transform natural ventilation. When combined with a façade opening, a flat-roof window can more than double airflow, enabling efficient cross-ventilation and the stack effect. In summer, this approach can outperform mechanical systems by more than a factor of ten, offering a highly sustainable way to manage indoor air quality and temperature.

Comfort through smarter solar control: Daylight must be balanced with thermal comfort. Discreet solar blackout blinds for flat roof windows can reduce indoor temperatures by up to 5°C on warm days, offering effective protection against overheating without compromising design intent.

VELUX are Gold Sponsors of the RIAI Awards 2026.

To learn more, contact the VELUX Architectural Team at architecture@velux.ie or visit their website.