Finland’s most beautiful building may also be the smartest

That beautiful houses are widely appreciated is probably no news to most people. Yet how about broadening our horizons and consider the benefits of buildings being as smart as they are beautiful? Oodi, the city of Helsinki’s new city library might be the most sustainable public building in Finland.

The City of Helsinki has set the target to become the most functional city in the world and becoming completely C0₂ neutral as early as 2035. As part of their efforts, the city has now connected over 1,700 public buildings to a smart building platform. They can now measure and control, amongst other things, their building’s energy consumption and air quality.

One such building is the new city library Oodi. Hundreds of data points relating to energy consumption and over a thousand process- and indoor air sensors can be read in real time. This constant flow of data paves the way for analysis and fine-tuning processes. The result is optimized energy consumption, cleaner air for library users whilst at the same time reducing CO2 emissions from the building.

“Oodi is not only a beautiful building. It’s probably also one of the most energy efficient buildings in Helsinki”, says Olli Parkkonen at Nuuka Solutions.”Through real time data collected by our smart building management platform we can monitor Oodi’s CO₂ emission and energy consumption as well as indoor climate and HVAC processes.Resulting in that the City of Helsinki can guarantee good indoor air quality with optimal energy efficiency in the building at all the times”. 

Buildings are responsible for 39% of all global CO2 emissions

A report from World Green Building Council states that CO₂ emissions from buildings is responsible for 39% of the global CO₂ emissions. Connecting and controlling the building data and the energy consumption of commercial and public buildings could have a massive impact in reducing the world’s energy consumption and emissions. It is also an important step towards achieving the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement.

Helsinki’s digitization project, started in 2018, and the city has calculated that total building related energy consumption is going to be reduced by a minimum of 10-20%. This is certainly no small feat, with the added bonus of providing clean air in Finland’s most beautiful building!

Foto: Tuomas Uusheimo