SİMAY ARIKAN
Senior Director, Business Development and Exploration & Head of the “Buildings of the Future” Department
VELUX A/S, DK
Bio
Simay Arikan is the senior director of business development and exploration heading the Buildings of the Future department in VELUX Group.
Arikan brings more than 18 years of diverse industry experience in quality management, technology development, innovation management, technology commercialization and business development.
Today, she and her team are focusing on supporting and accelerating sustainability transitions, through research, innovation and business development activities. Working together with ecosystem partners, she works towards positioning VELUX as a visible leader of the transformation towards healthy and sustainable building designs.
Arikan holds an Executive MBA from WHU / Kellogg School of Management in Germany and USA and a BS in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in Turkey.
Presentation
The Role of Glass in Buildings of the Future
VELUX roof windows have been bringing daylight and fresh air into homes around the world for more than 80 years. Our products help create bright, healthy and energy-efficient places in which to live, work, learn and play.
At the VELUX Group, we wish to lead the change towards healthy and sustainable buildings. We believe that buildings of the future must be designed for people, with their health in mind, for increased energy efficiency and with respect for the environment.
Cities and buildings account for an increasing share of the world's energy consumption and CO2 emissions. To break the curve of increasing environmental pressure from buildings, we need sustainable buildings that also have a positive impact on our health and well-being.
We actually spend 90% of our time indoors and our homes are so well insulated that not enough fresh air and daylight can get in. Lack of direct sunlight also causes health issues which can contribute to feelings of tiredness, fatigue and low mood. Without action, these problems are only going to get worse. That’s why it’s so important for all of us to re-think the way we live indoors. From individuals to architects, from companies to governments, we all have a responsibility to do everything we can to make sure our buildings have a healthy environment. We have to start building differently, and we have to start living differently. Some solutions are simple, some more demanding, and some require fundamental changes in society.
We need an ambitious legislative framework to meet climate neutrality by 2050 but also to change the way we look at buildings today – moving beyond energy performance, to climate, environment and health. Glass and windows, used right, is one of the key enablers to achieve this goal.