Atelier Bow-Wow and Climate Scientists Honored with 2026 Daylight Award on UNESCO International Day of Light

Written by Antonia Piñeiro
Published on May 20, 2026

On UNESCO's International Day of Light, celebrated annually on May 16, the Daylight Award announced its 2026 laureates. Established to support research into the scientific understanding of daylight and its significance for health, well-being, ecosystems, and architectural design, the award recognizes achievements in two categories: Daylight in Architecture and Daylight Research. This year, Japanese architects Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto of Atelier Bow-Wow were honored for demonstrating how daylight can shape shared spaces and everyday life, while marine biologists Brittany N. Zepernick, Steven W. Wilhelm, and R. Michael McKay of the United States and Canada were recognized for their research on aquatic microorganisms and their implications for planetary health and biodiversity.

The Daylight Award is presented by the Daylight Academy (DLA), an international organization that brings together scientists, architects, engineers, and other professionals engaged in daylight-related research and practice. The initiative seeks to foster collaboration across disciplines traditionally considered separate fields of expertise, promoting an integrated understanding of daylight's role in human life and the broader ecosystem. In this context, the 2026 laureates were recognized by the jury for "revealing daylight as a shared condition shaping both how we inhabit dense urban environments and how microscopic life sustains planetary systems."

The 2026 Daylight Award for Architecture was presented to Japanese architects Momoyo Kaijima and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, founders of the Tokyo-based practice Atelier Bow-Wow, which they lead alongside partner Yoichi Tamai. The award acknowledges their long-standing exploration of the relationship between architecture, daylight, climate, and everyday life through what they describe as "Architectural Behaviorology." Since founding the practice in 1992, their projects have examined how architecture responds to dense urban conditions, using daylight not only as an aesthetic component but also as a spatial, environmental, and social element. Rather than relying on expansive transparency or monumental forms, their work investigates adaptive strategies for introducing natural light through courtyards, narrow gaps, reflective surfaces, filtered openings, and context-specific window configurations. The jury also highlighted the architects' attention to vernacular conditions, existing structures, and patterns of inhabitation, emphasizing an approach grounded in the relationship between buildings, weather, and daily life.

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The jury emphasized the diversity of strategies developed by Kaijima and Tsukamoto across a range of completed projects, noting how each responds to specific environmental and social conditions. Examples cited include the GAE House in Tokyo, where reflected light is directed into the interior through glazed roof eaves; the Nora House in Sendai, which uses daylight and ventilation shafts to organize a multi-level domestic space; and the Rue Rebière housing project in Paris, where varying balcony depths create changing patterns of light and shadow across the façade. Other recognized projects include the adaptive reuse of traditional machiya houses in Kanazawa, the Bird Theatre workshop in Tottori incorporating salvaged architectural elements, and the Environmental Energy Innovation Building in Tokyo, where photovoltaic panels simultaneously generate energy, provide shading, and filter daylight.

The 2026 Daylight Award for Research was awarded to Brittany N. Zepernick, Steven W. Wilhelm, and R. Michael McKay for their work on the relationship between daylight, photosynthetic algae, and climate change. Their research examines how changing light conditions in aquatic environments affect microscopic algae that sustain ecosystems through photosynthesis by generating oxygen, supporting food webs, regulating nutrient cycles, and contributing to carbon sequestration. Focusing on northern temperate lakes, the researchers study how reduced winter ice cover due to climate change increases water movement and sediment disturbance, resulting in higher turbidity that limits the penetration of daylight underwater. Their findings reveal how algae communities adapt to altered light spectra in cold and increasingly opaque waters, offering insight into ecosystem resilience and the broader environmental consequences of climate change.