The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2026
VELUX mounts shutters on the sash — window stays openable — Red Dot BoB 2026
VELUX redesigned the roller shutter to mount on the roof-window sash, so homeowners keep light, air and views while shaded — Red Dot BoB 2026.
VELUX Group
What it had to solve
VELUX's existing roller shutter didn't fit every roof-window combination, and with the shutter down users couldn't open the window. The team also wanted better summer heat protection, less packaging and a lower carbon footprint.
How it works
Roof windows are VELUX's core business, but its roller shutter had a structural flaw: it didn't fit all roof-window combinations, and when the shutter was down, the window could not be opened. Homeowners had to choose between shade and fresh air.
VELUX treated the redesign as a team exercise. Instead of conventional small meetings, the entire team — from management to representatives of every part of the value chain — met in person and laid every single component of the predecessor product on the table, asking where improvements were needed and how a new product should be designed.
The outcome was a sash-mounted roller shutter: the blind attaches to the moving sash, so the window can tilt open for light, air and views while still shaded. Slimmer aluminium slats, a simplified cord mechanism, screw-free components made with a highly automated moulding technique, and any-RAL colour matching to roof tiles supported both aesthetics and a lower carbon impact.
The Red Dot jury gave the shutter Best of the Best 2026 in the innovative design category and a further Product Design award in sun protection, calling it 'extremely innovative, highly functional and of exceptionally high quality'. It launched in Austria and went on sale in Germany from 1 May 2026, with installers praising easier and faster installation.
Why it lands
- The team relocated the problem: mounting the shutter on the sash — the moving part — meant shade no longer cost the homeowner light, air or an open window.
- Opening the process, with every predecessor component on the table for the whole value chain, surfaced the real constraints before design started.
- Screw-free construction enabled a novel, highly automated production method, cutting material and carbon without sacrificing quality.
- Treating the shutter as part of the house's architecture — any RAL colour — helped it win both an innovation and a product-design award.
What it did
The sash-mounted roller shutter won Red Dot: Best of the Best 2026 in the innovative design category plus a Red Dot Award for Product Design. VELUX reports easier, faster installation and positive feedback from installers at the Dach+Holz trade fair in Cologne.
What you can take
When a product's core limitation is structural — the shutter blocks the window it serves — move the solution to the moving part itself; radical relocation, not incremental tweaks, is often the fix.
Since then
The sash-mounted roller shutter launched in Austria and went on sale in Germany on 1 May 2026, after positive feedback from installers at the Dach+Holz trade fair in Cologne. The double Red Dot win — Best of the Best plus a Product Design award — became VELUX's latest design recognition, with the group crediting close collaboration across the organisation for the result.
Sources
- VELUX Roller Shutter (sash-mounted solution)
- VELUX Group wins two Red Dot Design Awards 2026 for new roller shutter
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