Any given Sunday

In a generation spending up to 90% of time indoors a Sunday with blue sky calls for outdoor activity.

After a motivational talk Saturday - we agreed to try out walking around Fures?en a 21km hike North of Copenhagen -provided that I would be bringing along the Jetboiler and "military" supplies of mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs for lunch cooking in the forest.

The first 7k Southbound is cutting through the most beautiful hilly forest landscape alongside the breathtaking clear watered lake which btw. is among the deepest lakes - if not the deepest - in Denmark. A gem for recreational activities across seasons. We even today in 3 degrees celcsius spotted a few courageous swimmers or dippers enjoying a refreshing temperature booster! Together with fixed sleeping pattterns, restricted eating windows, exposure to early morning light, bare feet decharging into planet Earth and proper breathing - the cold water plunges similar to sauna treatments are good for longevity (according to clever practicioners like Peter Attia, Gary Brecka & many more).

We launched the walk talking about big and small, e.g., Japanese forest bathing concepts, that each of us wake up every day with a choice of how we will spend our lives (and I ventured into a bit of a dogmatic speech about their current choice pivoting towards using all of their free time on endless algorithmic Youtube watching instead of actually investing in developing skills, or challenging own perceptions being more mindful, curious and outgoing). After them trying several times to get speaking time by walking with raised hands I surrendered and we again became truly equals. A walking team of four discussing in eye height with an open mind and open ears (and my mouth shut - at least for a while).

After the first 7k the trail leads you for a few kilometers through the sleeping residential sattelite of Virum - a peaceful beauty on the Eastern side of the lake. Suddenly the walk transferred into a study of houses, roof pitch and light inflow.

Walking thinking to myself whether indeed we with VELUX solutions had succesfully transformed the lives of the people living in those homes.

An amazing thing about my three boys (and probably most kids) is that no matter where I have worked they have always found pleasure and interest in discussing work related dilemmas.

Ok - maybe fair to confess that they had a bit bigger blast when I was in Carlsberg and the employee benefits were more tangible than daylight and fresh air - probably. What can compete with free carbonated soft drinks, visits to the original stables and the "brewer" horses on Old Carlsberg Vej in the centre of Copenhagen for at that time 4-7 year old boys.

Anyway - that is a distraction for my point here. Conceptually all three were eager to discuss pros and cons in relation to indoor living and how to ensure that the houses we build and renovate become better for the people using them as safe spaces for family and friends.

How to use a more holistic approach in assessing the many trade-offs you have to consider when arbitrating between energy optimization and ability to breathe fresh air. About importance of sometimes renovating instead of tearing down and building new. About embedded CO2 and considerations for climate and our planet. As one of them rightfully said - our house is built from materials from the Earth just digged up or cut down, processed and moved to where our house is today.

They even seemed to grasp the complexity of daylight through the roof reaches deeper into the house than the light from facade windows.

For sure they bought into my sales pitch around unlimited view to the blue sky or watching shooting stars or craters of the moon at bedtime. And the analogy that all trees are fighting to reach above their neighbors in the race for survival, i.e., not survival of the fittest - but survival of the tallets. Simply because the tallest tree will get more direct sun than its next door neighbors.

Kids have a more vivid and unrestricted fantasy - which we adults can learn a lot from!

After Virum comes a beautiful 3-4k pathway through swamp and waterholes before you cross by the beautiful N?sse Castle (former Dronninggaard Castle which was originally placed by the Crown to oversee the massive amount of farmland North of Copenhagen.

Even soldiers need rest and in the sun a few old military biscuits were consumed.

Then the trail leads you through Holte featuring some really high end estates that can take the breath from boys in the age 10-13. So after Herman my second son promised me to buy a retirement house for me once he got rich we proceeded alongside the Eastern part through Bistrup and back to Farum. Not forgetting the detour to discussing climate changes caused by human activity as the pathway alongside Holte's castle like villas is quite wet at this time of the year.

Also on the Holte side - Oskar my oldest son spent quite some time arguing that the logo must be related to the American shoemaker and fashion brand DC shoes. Thus the bridge logo was an outdoor gold plated asset which fit their brand core and visual identity well. At the time I laughed and said he was crazy - but I did not have a better idea - and as we all know perception is reality.

When we arrived home I had to find out what the DC could be an abbreviation for. Tadaaa - Dronninggaard Castle I thought when reading that N?sse Castle previously was named Dronninggaard Castle - but wait a minute - why would we use letters from an English word on the bridges? Could it be the Dutch tradesman Frédéric de Conninck who bought the estate in 1881 taking his last name DC? Maybe someone out there knows for sure? For now we have decided to roll with a gold plated outdoor execution from DC shoes... Creativity runs in the family.

The discussion around architecture and why too many people miss out on leveraging the roof as the house's fifth facade to actively improve indoor wellbeing continued. We discussed why some people end up with only one VELUX window in their roof but have +20 facade windows. Why some understand the concept and install four or more VELUX windows.

Surely something you can do better - right dad? The answer to that simple question is "yes son". Despite that VELUX was founded during Second World War our journey in some ways seems to have just begun.

Any given Sunday and a walk we had planned to take 5 hours ended up taking most of the day.

But what is not to love about a day spent with your loved ones under open blue sky discussing what really matters - for big hearted future independent citizens of the world:

Wellbeing for both people and planet