Dezeen Magazine

A photograph of a project with Velux windows

Dezeen to live-stream daily talks during Velux Build for Life conference

Dezeen has teamed up with window and skylight brand Velux to host and broadcast a series of panel discussions as part of its Build for Life online conference from 15 to 17 November.

Build for Life is a free digital conference that will see more than 90 experts from around the world discuss climate-related challenges in the built environment.

A picture of a building with Velux windows
The Build for Life conference is organised by window and skylight brand Velux

Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs will host three panel discussions from the Dezeen Studio Space in London.

Each of these sessions will be live-streamed on Dezeen, as well as forming part of the wider Build for Life online programme hosted on Velux's website.

COP26 talk on 15 November

The first talk takes place on 15 November at 9:30am London time and is titled: How can we enable the learnings from COP26 to reinvent cities?

Fairs will be joined by Christopher Trott, head of sustainability at Foster + Partners, Mark Watts, executive director at C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, and Cécile Brisac, founder of Brisac Gonzalez.

The talk will focus on COP26 in Glasgow, which concludes on 12 November. Fairs, Brisac, Trott and Watts will discuss COP26’s outcomes and what the built environment can take from it in order to reimagine cities.

The second panel discussion will be live-streamed on Dezeen from 8:00am London time on 16 November and is titled: Is the future beautiful?

Fairs will be in conversation with Lorenzo de Simone, coordinator for New European Bauhaus High-level Round Table, Mary Parsons, commissioner for Building Better Building Beautiful, and Dana Behrman, associate director at UNStudio.

The talk will discuss quality in design, sustainable settlements and the importance of aesthetics in place, buildings and communities.

A picture of a building with circular windows
Build for Life is a free digital conference

Dezeen's third talk is titled: How can environmental systems be conceptualised in harmony with architecture to support sustainable development?

Taking place on 17 November at 9:00am London time, Fairs will be joined by Susanne Brorson, founder of Studio Susanne Brorson, Kasper Guldager, architect and co-founder at Home.Earth, and James Drinkwater, head of built environment at Laudes Foundation.

The talk will focus on how environmental systems are conceptualised in harmony with architecture to support sustainable development. It will also examine building passports in digitisation.

Dezeen's China editor Christina Yao will be moderating a fourth session from Shanghai, which will be available to watch on Dezeen's WeChat channel. The panel will take place from 9:00am to 11:00am London time on 16 November.

Titled Daylight and Sustainability, it will examine how buildings can regenerate the environment. It includes Li Hu, founding partner from Open Architecture, Ye Qing, chairman of the Institute of Building Research, Sun Yimin, dean of the South China University of Technology, Joerg Lonkwitz, senior designer from Gensler, and Song Yehao, tenured professor from Tsinghua University + THA and co-founder of SUP Atelier.

The talk will focus on "daylight excellence" in China, best practice examples and regenerative design research.

A picture of a building with Velux windows
The Daylight Symposium stage will explore buildings that are "healthy and resilient"

Dezeen's sessions are just a few of the talks and panel discussions that make up the Build for Life online conference, which is free to attend.

Full Build for Life programme to be streamed by Velux

The rest of Build for Life's virtual programme will be streamed on Velux's website from Copenhagen, Denmark, from two main stages: the Compass stage and the Daylight Symposium stage.

The talks taking place from the Compass stage will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the built environment today, including "the need for flexibility in design, the shifting role of buildings in our communities, and new demands for healthier living spaces".

The Compass stage talks will be moderated by Ane Cortzen, architect, presenter, and graphic designer, and Pernille Berg, head of the science programme at Bloxhub.

The panels from the Daylight Symposium stage will explore designing buildings that are "healthy and resilient".

Here, 40 experts in daylight practice and research will discuss their findings into daylight and its effect on people and the planet.

The talks from the Daylight Symposium stage will be moderated by Martha Thorne, dean of the School of Architecture at IE University, and Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg, professor of architecture at the University of Oregon.

Download the programme here and register for the conference here.

Velux's Build for Life conference takes place online from 15 to 17 November 2021. For details of more architecture and design events, visit Dezeen Events Guide.


Dezeen x Velux Build for Life

This article was written by Dezeen for Velux as part of a partnership. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.