Helsinki Design Lab - powered by Sitra
 

HDL is now closed. For more info, click here.

HDL Living Archive

Helsinki Design Lab's roots stretch back to 1968. In 2008 Sitra resurrected the initiative and operated it for five years. We are now closing this chapter of the project's life, and in doing so creating a living archive. Our intention is to open up the work of HDL as a useful platform for others who carry forward the mission of institutional redesign.

The full website will remain in place until at least the beginning of 2015. You are free to copy, remix, and extend the content here using a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license. Below we've curated a shortlist of useful posts from this site's history.

  • Basics
  • What does "lab" mean to HDL?
  • Defining our mission
  • How did HDL choose projects?
  • Marco explains strategic design
  • The 'bus schedule' story
  • Booting-up
  • Recruiting rules of thumb
  • Qualities to recruit for
  • Creating this website
  • Establishing a visual language
  • Operations
  • Projects as probes
  • The pivot
  • Going beyond 'open'
  • Cultures of decision-making
  • On Post-it Notes and Powerpoint
  • Examples of our work
  • A typical week at HDL
  • Sketching in the middle of a project
  • Small events
  • And of course the projects...
  • ... and publications
  • Other resources
  • UNICEF's guide to Innovation Labs
  • Labs: Designing the future
  • Dark Matter and Trojan Horses
  • HDL
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • About
  • Team
Sustainability Studio (2010) Dossier Delivered District Heat Energy by Decade of Construction


Building age is the greatest determinate of the energy efficiency of Fin- land's building stock. In general, buildings constructed during the rapid urbanization of the 1950's, 60's and early 70's are the least efficient buildings of any decade either before or after. In fact, apartment buildings built at the turn of the 20th century and during the 1940's are, as a class, the most effi- cient in the country. Those built during the 1970's energy crisis are among the least efficient.

Latest from the Sustainability Studio (2010) dossier

Part pin up board, link list, white paper, and notepad, the HDL Dossiers are a tool to capture information and knowledge related to our Studio focus areas as they continue to evolve on an ongoing basis.

More from this dossier

  • Studio Summary
    The Studio identified three main avenues to carbon neutrality in the built environment: reducing demand for carbon-intensive energy and behaviours,...
  • Distribution of CO2 Emissions from Transport by Type 2002
    Source: Kalenoja, H, et al. "Potential for Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Transport in Finland" Tempere University of...
  • Some Key Challenges To Decarbonization
    The decarbonization of a nation is a massive challenge. Each potential area of activity has the depth and complexity to consume the resources of...
  • Opportunity Space
    This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Sustainability Finland can achieve carbon neutrality in the coming decades. In fact,...
  • The Challenge
    This is an excerpt from the HDL Challenge Briefing on Sustainability Climate change is the symptom of a problem; the byproduct of a market ...

What is HDL?

Helsinki Design Lab uses strategic design to uncover the "architecture" of large-scale challenges and develop more holistic, complete solutions for improvement. We strive to advance knowledge, capability, and achievement in this discipline, regardless of geography or nationality. HDL most recently operated 2009-2013 and is now closed.

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