Sustainable design has been embraced at Gullstén & Inkinen Design and Architecture since the foundation of the company. Last year GI celebrated its 30th birthday, so a lot has been done for the environment during the years.

GI hopes to slow down the climate change with sustainable choices and practices, and to increase the awareness of environmental issues and ecological efficiency. In 2010, we became the first design agency in the world to be admitted in the WWF Green Office Network, thanks to our long-standing commitment to sustainable practices. Even though we have recently withdrawn from the Green Office-certificate, the sustainable practices still live strong in our office. For instance, GI has bought ecological electricity which is produced with bio energy, wind power and hydropower in small local power plants, since 2011. Ekosähkö produces eco energy that is certified by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation.

GI is Finland’s first carbon neutral design agency

”For a long time, we have noticed in our work that people are more and more interested in the environmental issues. We want to enforce this trend with our work. We want to be forerunners of the industry and show how to take sustainable way of thinking into the design process and practices with our own example. We create visually and functionally sustainable spaces, prefer ecological producers and suppliers, and increase the efficiency of spaces by taking into consideration the lifecycle of materials. This way, we encourage our customers towards sustainable and ecological thinking”, summarizes Hanna Gullstén, Creative Director and one of the founders of GI.

Measurement of our carbon footprint

“During Fall 2019, we have evaluated the current carbon footprint of our agency. Most of the emissions come from our employees’ trips between their home and workplace. We have succeeded to minimize the work-related travelling by using digital communication. The carbon footprint of GI is remarkably lower than the reference value of WWF Carbon Footprint Calculator for the companies of the same size locating in the building of same age in Helsinki area. This was, however, not enough for us. We wanted more”, states Jari Inkinen, CEO of GI.

“We used Ilmastoapu Oy as an external consultant to calculate our annual carbon emissions and to give us instructions on how to compensate our carbon footprint. We decided to compensate our annual carbon emissions of 27 tonnes by supporting a Solar project in a village of Sanwreej, located in Jodhpur India. This project is run in cooperation with Gold Standard Foundation.”

Carbon neutral design

Our mission is to make our carbon handprint even bigger in the future. Carbon handprint means that, in addition to being carbon neutral ourselves, we help our clients to reduce their own carbon footprint. This is achieved by offering them even more ecological design solutions both functionally and sustainably.
In the future we will issue an Annual Carbon Statement to report the sustainability of our practices.

Solo Sokos Hotel Paviljonki received the award for Best European Luxury Modern Hotel in the World Luxury Hotel Awards gala held on 12.10.2019.

This is not the first rodeo for Solo Paviljonki. World Luxury Hotel Awards – also known as the Oscars for the hotel industry – has also awarded them in 2015 and 2017. Earlier awards include e.g. Best Finnish Luxury City Hotel,  Best Northern European Design Hotel and Best Finnish Luxury Modern Hotel. This year the last mentioned award was received on the Continental level.

Gullstén-Inkinen has designed the spacious, bright and harmonious interiors of the restaurants and conference rooms of Solo Sokos Paviljonki. The goal was to create an easily approachable meeting place for the citizens and to ensure the flexibility of the breakfast area that also doubles as a private restaurant.

Hotel Paviljonki has been successful on other platforms as well. On TripAdvisor’s yearly Travellers’ Choice Top 25 -listing for 2019 they reached 8th place in the Finnish Hotels category.

Gullstén-Inkinen Design & Architecture celebrates their 30th anniversary this autumn.

In 30 years we have grown from a two-person den into a design and architecture agency of over 20 people. During this time we have also seen many projects of different shapes and sizes. We have gone from designing private homes and exhibition stands to larger spaces such as hotels, restaurants and offices for international listed companies as well as adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

We have designed a couple of million square meters of space and are gazing forwards, towards a bright future.  When asked what he thinks of the company reaching the 30-year-milestone, CEO Jari Inkinen responds:

“I bet almost every Finnish adult has worked, studied, slept or at least eaten in premises we have designed. The results of our work have affected a great number of people and their daily lives. Although most of our work has been done in the Helsinki metropolitan area, our designs can be found far from our hometown Helsinki, up to Lapland, Moscow, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm – even Singapore and Shanghai. Still, our hometown is the dearest.”

We celebrate our 30th anniversary by driving around Helsinki in a tram. On the route, we have selected 30 of our design projects from the couple of hundred projects over the years. The list includes e.g. renovation of Cafe Vanha of the Old Student House (1988), Sanoma House (1999), Burger King on the Central Railway Station (2014) and headquarters of Amer Sports in an old storehouse in Vallila, among many others. Many a fun anecdote has originated from these sites, as different kinds of adventures often take place during the consturcion before the project is completed and the customer is satisfied.

GI office has been located on Lemuntie, at a former bus body factory in Vallilan Akseli building. Today, a staff of over twenty architects, interior architects, work environment consultants and other experts in their field, work in these premises. Design projects underway include Telia’s new headquarters in Pasila’s Tripla complex, SOK’s hotel in Kupittaa, Turku, renovation of Hotel Klaus K on Bulevardi and Uusikumpu elementary school in the former Outokumpu headquarters in Espoo. On top of this, we are currently working on approx. 50 other design projects at the moment.

The renovation of the historically significant property of Mikonkatu 9 in Helsinki center has been finished in early 2019. Gullstén-Inkinen Design & Architecture was responsible for the principal and architectural design. The property is owned by insurance company Ilmarinen.

The property was originally built as a headquarters for Atlas Bank in 1929, so thorough renovation was due. The red bricks of the facade were mostly in such great condition that not much needed to be done. The interior, however, was outdated both in terms of the office spaces and technical systems. The modern-day tenants expect a lot from premises in the city center, and technology that dates back 20 years simply won’t do.

Something new, something very old…

The facade as well as part of the interior is protected under classification SR-1, which means that the building or its structures may not be changed or demolished so that their cultural historical or architectural value is compromised. Any and all renovations are to be negotiated with the museum authority.

– Together with the specialists from the Helsinki City Museum we found such design and implementation solutions that satisfy the goals of all parties, says Jari Inkinen, architect (SAFA) and interior architect (SIO). Inkinen is the principal and architectural designer of the project.

The renovation of the property was comprehensive. The interior structures, for example, were in most places stripped down to the concrete in order to avoid any problems with the air quality. On the other hand, auxiliary structures that had been added to the original structures at a later stage, were demolished to create more space. Parts of the street level interiors were also returned to their original glory: the dragons that were painted to protect the banking vaults as well as the floors of the old customer areas were completely restored.

– The pattern on the floors was reconstructed based on old black-and-white photos, Inkinen recounts. The colors were interpreted from small remaining fragments, and the new floor tiles were cut and glued on based on the photos. The glass ceiling of the old courtyard was demolished and was replaced by a new copper roof. The frame of the glass roof was left in place and artificial lights were installed inside the glass to recreate the ambiance of a glass roof.

Flexibility and adjustability first

The main tenant of the eight-story-building is Epicenter Helsinki, who has been involved in the renovation project since the beginning. Epicenter provides flexible co-working spaces, innovation laboratories and event management, and the synergies of its subtenants are at the core of their operations. With this in mind, a lot is required from the design of the office space in the building: they need to be able to accommodate different sizes of companies in different stages of their life cycle.

There were also comprehensive changes in the common areas in the first and second floors of the building. A loft structure was built in the old banking hall, so that smaller spaces could be added on the second floor. By moving the transferable walls, the lower levels can be arranged into a two-storied auditorium for 200 people.

With the mobility of the employees in mind, a new stairway was added in the middle of the building, in addition to the two existing ones. This made the distribution of space more flexible in the upper floors – the offices in each floor can be rented out to five tenants instead of two. The commuters with bicycles were also taken into consideration by building washing facilities and bicycle parking, complete with a bicycle elevator, on the basement level.

 

Text: Essi Tenho
Interior photos: Aukusti Heinonen
Exterior photos: Mikael Lindén

Read more about the Mikonkatu 9 property: The renovation of Mikonkatu 9 proceeds to topping out

Gullstén-Inkinen Design & Architecture is a creative design agency with experience and vision. We design solutions that have a small carbon footprint and a big heart.

Our team consists of architects, interior architects, graphic designers, workplace consultants, service designers and project engineers. Our design projects cover adaptive reuse of buildings, working environments, commercial facilities, showrooms, restaurants, hotels and learning environments.

Read more about our projects.