History

The young engineer Villum Kann Rasmussen established his company V. Kann Rasmussen & Co in Copenhagen. Within a year, he received a large commission to supply roof windows to Slagelse Vestre school to convert loft spaces into classrooms full of daylight and fresh air.

Villum’s vision and ambition was “to make a skylight that is just as good as the best vertical window”. He registered VELUX as a trademark, ‘VE’, from the word ‘ventilation’ and ‘LUX’, from the Latin word for ‘light’. Image: Villum Kann Rasmussen (VKR) at work in his own new company.

A factory in Østbirk for production of VELUX roof windows was established. Almost a decade later in 1954, the production at Østbirk Bygningsindustri became industrialised, improving productivity, scale, standardisation and quality.

The VELUX roof window was patented in 1948. One year later, the pivot hinge, a key roof window component and main contributor to the rapid success of VELUX was also patented.

Villum and Ernst Günter Albers, owner of the West German joinery E. Albers & V. Drathen (ALDRA) formed a partnership. Together, they established VELUX GmbH Bauzubehör and entered an agreement to manufacture windows for the German market in West Germany, with the hardware and know-how supplied from Denmark.

Growing concerns about environmental impact resulted in the building sector heightening requirements for energy optimising components. To reduce the number of components and to limit resource and energy consumption, the new generation of VELUX windows featured uniform profiles, which also meant they could be installed more harmoniously and securely.

By the 2000’s, the VELUX Group had operations all around the world, with 10,000 employees in over 35 countries. Our focus was to develop solutions that addressed energy efficiency and sustainability in everyday living. We introduced three new products: the electrical window INTEGRA in 2002, and io-homecontrol® and the VELUX Sun Tunnel in 2005.

In collaboration with an animation company, a series of 'Toys' commercials were produced.

The International VELUX awards is a competition for architecture students all over the world. It reflects our commitment and contribution to better living environments. IVA is a biennial competition that is still going today.

In 2005, a new vision was launched: “To lead the development of better living environments with daylight and fresh air through the roof”. The vision highlighted the importance of natural daylight and ventilation, and their interconnection with people’s quality of life.

We launched our New Generation of roof windows and our VELUX Modular Skylights. Bringing daylight and fresh air into commercial buildings was a completely new business area for VELUX.

Having been the leader in the residential roof window market for over 75 years, we accelerated our efforts to become a regional market leader within the commercial business area. VELUX acquired Wasco Products Inc., JET-Group, and Vitral. With these acquisitions and the continuous development of VELUX Modular Skylights, we significantly strengthened our position in the commercial market and established a VELUX commercial division.

The 3-in-1 roof window set the new standard for increasing daylight and fresh air in homes. As opposed to three individual windows, customers could now install one window with three individual sashes set in a single sleek frame.

With its minimalistic design, the new glass rooflight delivered on functionality with a special glass-to-edge design that lets in up to 52 percent more daylight than the previous generation of rooflights. Image: The flat glass vented variant won the 2021 Red Dot award in the Product Design category.

Lars Petersson took over as the new CEO of the VELUX Group on November 1, 2022 after the retirement of former CEO David Briggs.

Our VELUX Values were originally created in 1997. We updated them to better reflect changes within the VELUX Group and the current world we live in. Our revised VELUX Values are: Commitment, Customer Centricity, Courage, Mutual Respect, Social Responsibility and Agility. These six values guide our everyday work and are our compass for decision-making in both good and challenging times. They represent ‘the how’ behind our Model Company Objective, Purpose and Strategy.

Partnering with EFFEKT and Artelia we created the Living Places concept, which demonstrates that it is possible to build homes with a significantly lower carbon footprint and best-in-class indoor climate with existing technologies, materials, and techniques. During the UIA World Congress of Architects held in Copenhagen in July 2023, the first Living Places prototype – Living Places Copenhagen – was selected as one of 15 SDG Pavilions for its ability to address the 11th SDG goal “Sustainable cities and communities”. Image: The Living Places Copenhagen prototype consists of seven buildings, five open pavillions and two full-scale finished homes.