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Six experiments

In 2009, the VELUX Group launched the project Model Home 2020, a vision for climate-neutral buildings with a high level of liveability. It is part of the VELUX strategy to take an active part in developing sustainable buildings – the buildings of the future. The vision and principles behind Model Home 2020 needed to be developed and tested; so from 2009 to 2011, we have built six full-scale experimental demo-houses which have been placed at six different locations in five countries. 

Europe map

The two experiments in Denmark were built as a partnership between the VELUX Group and VELFAC. The first experiment (Home for Life in Aarhus) has been monitored for two years, and this experiment is now finished. The second experiment (Green Lighthouse which houses the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Copenhagen University) is still being tested and monitored.

The other four houses in Germany (renovation), France (newbuild), Austria (newbuild) and in the UK (newbuild) are being or will soon be tested. The French house, Maison Air et Lumière, was the last one to be build and was finished in the autumn 2011. It will soon be ready for its test family and monitoring.

Each of the six houses involves a number of local and regional partners, suppliers, architects, engineers and researchers. They all reflect and respond to three main principles – efficient energy design, high degree of liveability and minimum climate impact – as well as the different climatic, cultural and architectural conditions of the countries in which they are built.