We are a young office with architects and architecture students eager to learn, develop and spread knowledge. We do research within the office and some of our staff teach and do research alongside working for HELST. Our team wants to take part in the sustainable transition that is needed in the construction business. We are committed to updating our knowledge so that we can offer our clients sustainable, affordable and, of course, beautiful and functional architecture. This is also why we have developed a new design tool, called LASKE, that we use in order to get estimated emissions and construction costs for our projects in real-time. You can read more about both sustainability and LASKE below.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
We want to better understand the impact our buildings have on the environment so that we can steer the design in the sustainable direction. We aim to design natural and healthy buildings using materials with low carbon footprints and big carbon handprints, thus minimizing the embodied emissions of our buildings. Additionally, we aim to design energy-efficient buildings with low operational emissions. You can read more about sustainability here.
With our new LASKE tool, we can calculate the emissions for our buildings in real-time and compare different versions of the design with each other or with other buildings that we have designed. You can read more about how LASKE works here.
ECONOMICAL IMPACT
We want to design buildings that are environmentally friendly but we are aware of the fact that buildings usually have a certain economical budget. This is why we have looked into the economics involved in a construction process. We want to gain a better understanding of the construction costs of our designs so that we can find where sustainability and affordability meet.
With our new LASKE tool, we can calculate estimated construction costs for our designs in real-time and help our clients get the best and most sustainable house for their set budget. You can read more about how LASKE works here.
SUSTAINABILITY
We are living in a world where our way of life exceeds the limits set by our natural environment and the built environment is one of the biggest emitters. This means that, in the status quo, the built environment is undeniably an enormous problem. However, at HELST, we want to view the built environment as something which could play a key role when solving the climate crisis.
The buildings alone in the EU stand responsible for 40% of total EU final energy consumption while causing 39% of all greenhouse emissions. Additionally, half of all the extracted materials go into construction. At the same time, the construction industry produces 25–30% of the generated waste in the EU, making it one of the major waste producers.
The environmental crisis we are in is more of a design failure than an inevitable product of modern life. Here, there is an acute need to change the mainstream practices both when it comes to construction and reconstruction. Innovation and new solutions are needed to prolong the lifespan of the existing building stock. The throwaway culture has to be systematically eliminated from construction, and buildings need to be seen as temporary material banks.
At HELST, we are committed to design more sustainable buildings and we are on a constant path of learning. Through our newly developed design tool, LASKE, we are now able to calculate and communicate the environmental impact our designs have, making it easy for us to steer the design towards having the lowest emissions possible.
A DESIGN TOOL THAT HELPS DESIGN SUSTAINABLE AND AFFORDABLE BUILDINGS
LASKE
At HELST, we want to take part in the sustainable transition that is needed in the construction business. We want to offer our clients sustainable, affordable and, of course, beautiful and functional architecture. This is why we have developed a new tool, called LASKE, that we use in order to get estimated emissions and construction costs for a project in real-time, based on our BIM-models. This design tool helps us discover the sustainable solutions that are also wallet-friendly. Additionally, we can help our clients to be more aware of the impacts their decisions have on both environmental and financial costs. While we are starting to integrate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to our design already now, this is something that will be required for all buildings by law within the near future. Starting this now is our way of showing that we care and we want to act on climate change without delays.
