Green and sustainable space and interior design - Ruohonjuuri flagship store

The Design Agency Amerikka has a multidisciplinary, 25-person team that designs architecture and design projects and related development and concept processes. Sami Maukonen, CEO and architect SAFA at Amerikka, said at the Nordic BIM Group's Interior Design Seminar that all the above-mentioned aspects are always present in one way or another in Amerikka's projects. All the quotes in this customer case are by Sami Maukonen.

A lot of sustainable development is already being done in new construction design, and there are various certified design methods, sustainable development processes and carbon accounting is often commonplace. This is not always the case in interior and space design. There are a couple of reasons for this, such as the fact that it is often a renovation project, i.e. an existing property to which demolition and circular economy issues are linked. There is often not enough information available on an old property, which makes getting started difficult. Building information modeling can also be a threshold issue in some cases.

Ruohonjuuri's new flagship store

Interior planning processes should be developed to be more ecological. At the moment, Amerikka's current sustainability project is the newly opened Ruohonjuuri flagship store, which has approximately 850 m2 of store and office space.

The Ruohonjuuri store has been developed as a large pilot project at Amerikka, where sustainable development projects have been planned for more than a year with financial support from Business Finland and own investments.

Ruohonjuuri returns to its roots in the Helsinki city center with its new flagship store. There is no compromise on design and durability in a striking and functional business space. Images © Design Agency Amerikka

Right at the beginning of the design, Amerikka, Ruohonjuuri and property owner Ylva all wanted to make the retail space as sustainable and green as possible.

The aim was to assess and monitor the environmental performance of surface and building materials with general-level carbon footprint calculations. The retail space had to meet at least the LEED ID + C v4 Hospitality-Gold requirements as part of the property's larger Grand Hansa project. In addition, the project has inventoried surface materials of the old premises and tried to preserve them as much as possible, in line with look of the store.

“In the pilot project, Ylva's role has been to improve energy efficiency and monitor the design of fixed structures. Ruohonjuuri has been responsible for the implementation of the store and has acted as the customer for the project. Amerikka's role was to plan and design the store, and to pilot sustainability through a building information model.”

In sustainable space planning, the extension of the renewal cycle and modularity are key

Extending the store's renewal cycle is important for sustainability. The store is designed to last and adapt to different events and situations. "The fact that the store is sustainable and long-lasting really plays a big role, and therefore more than a third of our working time has been spent on developing the store's operating models."

Another important factor affecting sustainability is modularity. Through modularity, the store can be renewed in the future without having to do everything at once. The Ruohonjuuri store has spaces of different sizes and divisions, and the furniture in the store is designed to be used in many different situations.

Main findings of the pilot project

1. Life cycle

Extending the life cycle has the biggest impact on sustainability.

“With the pilot project, the biggest finding was that the impact of space design on sustainability comes largely through its life cycle. High-quality facilities have an impact on the life cycle, which means that good design is always longer in principle, and therefore also in line with sustainable development. In the life cycle review, the annual carbon footprint is relatively high at the beginning of the life cycle and decreases over time thereafter. If no functionally sustainable space is made, the next renovation will lift the carbon footprint back up. The goal of the Ruohonjuuri store is to renovate the store in nine years at the earliest, and even then in accordance with sustainable development.”

2. Materials and furniture

The importance of ecological, low-carbon, reusable, durable and usable materials is emphasized by life-cycle thinking.

“The current focus on sustainability is on materials. According to our pilot project, the impact of materials is large, but in relation to the life cycle it is not quite as significant as what weight is given to it today. The individual material choices are really concrete and it’s good to get started, but the big picture needs to be kept in mind. The effect is cumulative and it is therefore effective to invest in sustainable material libraries. We have updated our material library to ensure that the EPD values of the products are known. So we use the best possible materials as a whole, without compromising on visuality or functionality."

3. Process and cooperation

Sustainability is an entirety. The customer, the supplier and the construction site must support the same goals.

“The first prerequisite for achieving sustainability is that the goals, measures and state of mind are as consistent as possible for all parties involved in the project. It doesn’t help if our plan is for recycled steel if the producer can’t deliver it. We need to set realistic goals for sustainability with the whole team, to which we are also committed. ”

Is BIM required?

Sustainable space planning requires building information modeling, as it must be possible to calculate the carbon footprint throughout the modeling process, and not just as a post-calculation. “The only way that works for us, is to use building information modeling, so that we can influence the model throughout the design process. We use Archicad and One-Click LCA software.”

Sami says the office should create a process that defines how building information modeling is done, as it’s not just about maintaining building information model parameters. At the agreed stage of the design, a calculation is taken out, according to which suitable corrections can then be made to the model.

“The design phase is still a calculation free area, but when we know we are making a sustainable building information model, we focus on effective modeling. It is worth doing so that the plan becomes so good that the life cycle expectations are met at the point where the design is run out and the carbon footprint is calculated. If we want to change something after that, it is easy and possible in the building information model.”

“We have had good results in sustainability development and made a comparison between the two of our own models, as no other item has been found to compare. We have been able to reduce our carbon footprint by 15%. Most importantly, we now have benchmarking data and have learned in concrete terms what is contributing to reducing our carbon footprint.”

At the end of the project, Amerikka will produce a Sustainability Report listing all the things where it has been successful and where it has not. It is easy to draw conclusions from it about what can be done even better in the next project.