A DAY ON LANSSIKATU STREET

Low energy consumption, smart living
and new improvements to the buildings’ recycling
system are being thought of impromptu:
* The area’s a bit cramped. The driver of the rubbish
van said that it’s difficult to reverse the van here.
* There should be bins for glass and metal too.
* Double-sided bins would be good: One side for
putting in the rubbish bags, the other for emptying
the bins.
* Better logistics. Efficient recycling should automatically
be part of the functions of a modern building.
6.00 pm
A poodle is doing its business by the wall erected to
give body to the Lanssikatu façade. He is unaware that
the wall is part of a smart, low-energy building project.
The façade wall was built in situ because the buildings’
life cycle was deemed important, and the building
materials and choice of appliances support this longlasting and sustainable idea from the perspective of life
cycle costs.
The cost of building maintenance is under control.
Remote monitoring and building automation have
brought the costs down to the minimum.
12.00 midnight
Lanssikatu is asleep. Numbers three and five look quiet,
but are in fact wide awake, running in low energy and
ready to serve their residents.
Low energy consumption, smart living
A DAY ON LANSSIKATU STREET
2.30 am
For further information please take contact:
Regional Council of Päijät-Häme
Lahden Talot oy
Regional Development Manager
Juha Hertsi
[email protected]
www.paijat-hame.fi
Head of Real Estate
Eero Lukkarinen
[email protected]
www.lahdentalot.fi
Author of the article: Timo Taulo
Regional Council of
Päijät-Häme
Lahti
The front door at 3 Lanssikatu opens. The newspaper
delivery man shakes the wet snow off his coat onto the
doormat and steps in. He turns on the corridor light;
only the downstairs lobby becomes illuminated while
the rest of the building remains dark. The man walks
over to the lift, and as he calls the lift, the automatic
LED lamps wake up. When he reaches the sixth floor to
begin his early morning paper round, the Lanssikatu
low-energy building has already conserved a couple of
newspapers worth of energy.
The rain has ceased and the sun is peeking from behind
the building’s eastern corner. The adjacent rock cliffs
shelter the buildings from wind and rain but allow them
ample light, and their roof-mounted solar collectors are
already waiting for the first rays of sun. The collectors
produce supplementary energy for hot water and
heating – they heat up water practically for free.
6.00 am
As part of their morning routine, Mr and Mrs Haavisto
walk around the beautiful Lahti harbour area, returning
home to Lanssikatu to enjoy a cup of coffee and a fresh
newspaper.
The front door at 5 Lanssikatu opens. A retired couple,
Tuula and Taisto Haavisto, step out for a morning walk.
The first low-energy buildings in Lahti use 30-40% less
energy than normal buildings. These two five-storey
buildings, completed in spring 2011, receive their
heating energy from geothermal and solar power.
Low energy consumption, smart living
Low energy consumption, smart living
10.30 am
Architect Markku Viitasalo on the third floor of number
three turns on the coffee maker. Time for a cappuccino
break in this office-cum-flat. The tenant of two months
in the 49m² low-energy flat ensconces himself in an
armchair and gazes out the window. The balcony
glazing runs all the way down, a clear, smooth surface.
The passers-by can admire the dollhouse effect of the
building façades on Lanssikatu: A public balcony offers
a view from outside in, as well. To Viitasalo’s living room,
it brings additional light and a sense of space. He has
turned his open plan balcony into an art exhibition, and
the balcony is now home to the sculptures made by his
wife.
The balcony glazing could also be used as solar
collectors. This has already been done elsewhere in
Europe, Viitasalo knows.
11.50 am
The architect considers the pros and cons of the lowenergy building, even though he himself didn’t take
part in designing it.
‘I became professionally interested in this building
immediately after hearing about it. And when my
previous home became far too big for a single person,
I decided to apply for a flat here. To me, the quality of
indoor air was an important factor, and the quality here is
excellent. Summertime air conditioning and apartmentspecific temperature control are important. And when
there’s no smoking and no pets in the building the air
quality stays good.’
So there is no need to open the windows to get in fresh
air, and the mechanical ventilation system recovers heat
efficiently.
Viitasalo loves wood: ‘Wood makes you happy’ is
his motto, and he would have liked more wood in
Lanssikatu. ‘In a building with such a high fire-resistance
level you could have used a bit more wood here and
there.’
12.30 pm
The Haavistos at number three are having lunch. The
view from the window by the table is to the west, to Lake
Vesijärvi, glistening a few blocks away. The flat is quiet. A
fork clinks against a plate, the radio plays a classical tune
and the passing cars can be seen through the window
but not heard.
In Lanssikatu, airtightness is a virtue. The low infiltration
rate and the quadruple-glazed windows provide both
heat and sound insulation. The balcony doors give
better insulation than those in normal buildings, and
so the fire trucks taking off from the nearby fire station
can be heard, but the rest of the sounds from the street
cannot. And neither could a blaring bass from next door.
The sound technology is improved by the building’s
ferroconcrete inner shell that is thicker than normal and
by the innovative flue modules.
1.00 pm
‘That was delicious!’ Since the building was completed,
the Haavistos have been more than happy with their
low-energy home. When it comes to modern-day living,
senior citizens are equally entitled to accessibility and
safety, and motion detectors make it easier to move
around the flat, for example, the bathroom.
Normally, people would pay for their water usage
according to estimates, but not in Lanssikatu: Every flat
has its own water meter, meaning that the residents
only pay for what they use.
Taisto is happy to do the hoovering as the earthed wall
sockets have been situated higher up the wall than
usual. Tuula appreciates the fact that the sockets also
have smoke detectors with automatic shut-off. The
building is made smart by a number of well-planned
and technologically innovative solutions.
This creates the perfect environment for an after-lunch
nap, Taisto knows.
1.15 pm
You can’t see how smart the building is inside the flats,
except that there are no radiators underneath the
windows. The building has no need for an expensive
radiator system.
And if you take a peek inside an electrical cabinet you
won’t find any old-fashioned fuses.
Lahden Talot Oy, a rental corporation owned by the City
of Lahti, initiated the Lanssikatu low-energy building
project, (Hyvätalo) for attaining operations models and
technical solutions.
‘The energy costs are on a constant rise. We wanted to
find new solutions for improving the energy efficiency in
new constructions. We also sought out ways to improve
the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock,’ says
Eero Lukkarinen, Property Manager at Lahden Talot. ‘We
wanted to reach energy consumptions 30% lower than
the current norms. And we succeeded.’
Small things matter when reducing energy consumption.
In Lanssikatu, the lifts and the remote-controlled sauna
stoves, the light switches and the communal sauna all
conserve energy.
3.00 pm
The Mac computer on Viitasalo’s desk receives a task. In
a fraction of a second, the computer sends a message
to Japan, to Viitasalo’s son. The father is sending pictures
of his new project into cyberspace. Viitasalo hopes the
smart building would get a smart network. Internal
communication and notifications to residents would
become more efficient if they were available online:
‘Today, 60% of the energy for water heating will be
taken from the solar collectors,’ or ‘You have booked the
communal sauna from 7pm onwards.’
In Viitasalo’s flat, the geothermal energy is also used to
keep the room temperature down during hot summer
days – the building’s thermal wells have been dug into
the bedrock underneath Lanssikatu. Each flat forms its
own ‘underfloor heating unit’, a total of over 120 units in
the two buildings. This enables the residents to adjust
the room temperatures separately in each flat.
5.30 pm
A crowd has gathered by the recycling bins in Lanssikatu.
People bringing in their bin bags have stayed for a chat,