On The Block 2026, each team had VELUX skylights playing an important role across all five homes, with Rick and Tayla in House 5 taking out the win this week.
We asked Steph Ottavio, winner of The Block 2023, to explore the ensuite reveals alongside Carl, our VELUX skylight expert. Together, they look at how each team has approached these compact spaces and how considered skylight placement can help maximise both light and ventilation.
Every design decision serves a purpose.
In a compact ensuite, there is little room for design elements that don't serve a purpose. As Steph puts it, “In small spaces like an ensuite, every design decision has to have a purpose.”
The five Block ensuites this year demonstrate this through the way each team considered the role of their skylights. Rather than treating them simply as a source of natural light, the teams used a combination of fixed and opening skylights according to what the space needed.
Across Houses 1, 2, 3 and 5, opening skylights have been positioned alongside fixed skylights, allowing the specification to address both daylight and ventilation.
House 5: Rick & Tayla
House 2: Chantel & Wyatt
Putting ventilation where it matters.
For bathrooms, ventilation is an important consideration, particularly around the shower where steam and warm, humid air accumulate, eventually causing mould.
This is where the positioning of an opening skylight can make a difference. Across The Block ensuites, opening skylights have been positioned above shower and wet-zone areas, creating ventilation where it is needed most.
House 3 provides a particularly considered example, with the floorplan effectively creating a ‘steam room’ separating the wet zone from the vanity. An opening skylight sits above the shower venting steam, while a fixed skylight provides daylight over the vanity.
The opening skylight also features a rain sensor, which automatically closes the skylight when rain is detected. Carl explains, “When the rain hits the acoustic sensor, the skylight closes three times as fast as it opens.”
With each house only having a small vertical window, the three VELUX skylights play an important role in providing daylight and ventilation without compromising on privacy.
House 3: Lisa & Rosco
House 1: Adam & Jolene
Designing with the architecture, not around it.
Skylight placement doesn't always have to be dictated by the existing architecture. House 4 demonstrates how the interior can instead be shaped to work with the skylights. In House 4, the skylights are offset within the roof structure, but by bringing the truss and plaster across them, they become centred within the room. While this means losing some of the skylight area, the remaining size is well balanced with the scale of the ensuite. For Steph, the result creates a “centre corridor of light”, showing how architecture can be moulded around a skylight to create a considered visual outcome. It also demonstrates the versatility of fixed skylights.
VELUX products featured this week on The Block
2x Flat Roof Fixed Skylight (FCM 3434)
1x Flat Roof Solar Skylight (VCS 3434)
Discover how VELUX skylights can help transform your bathroom with natural light, ventilation and greater privacy.