Three Views into Residential Innovation

The leading Finnish residential business conference of 2016 gathered industry leaders to Helsinki on January 26, 2016. In addition to the presentations on the present state and future trends of the market we also learned about digitalization and residential innovations. My company, AE Partners, was one of the organizing partners of the Asuntomarkkinat 2016 conference. During the conference, I had a change to interview three presenters for my podcast. Linda Liukas – Author, Programmer, Educator Linda Liukas is a world-famous children’s book author, programmer, Rails Girls co-funder, and illustrator. Her book for kids on programming, Hello Ruby, received over $380,000 in pre-orders during the first month on Kickstarter. Linda thinks that programming languages will become the first second languages for kids. All companies will become software companies, and all future problems will be connected to information technology. Quite radical claims, but she had a lot of evidence to back them up in here very inspiring presentation. As for home automation and Internet of Things, she calls for open standards. Who wants a home that in 10 years will become obsolete because of outdated proprietary technology? Visit http://lindaliukas.com for more information on Linda. In the title photo of this article, Linda is with another presenter, Juha Kostiainen, Senior Vice President, Urban Development and Corporate Relations of YIT. OurHouse – Festival for Suburbia Executive Producer Katja Linderoos presented OurHouse, a festival for suburbia. As a legacy of the rapid urbanization of the country between 1950s and 1970s, Finland’s suburban condominiums require huge repair investments. How to cope with the challenge is the theme of the OurHouse festival. The festival is open to everyone that’s interested in the future of the suburbia: inhabitants, politicians, authorities, investors, builders, and so on. During one week, there are workshops, presentations, demos, parties, and exhibitions. The idea of the festival is to raise awareness, search for solutions, and inspire to action. The first event took place in August 2015 in Vantaa, but there are going to many more in the near future. You can contact Katja via email at [email protected]. The website is at ourhouse.fi (in Finnish). SATO StudioHome – Affordable Metropolitan Housing with Style I did the third interview is with Miikka Karjaluoto, Investment Manager at SATO, a leading Finnish housing investment company. He talks about SATO StudioHome, a next-generation housing format for the increasing demand for affordable housing in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The concept aims to provide an excellent customer experience and comfort as well as low housing costs. StudioHomes are well-equipped, almost four-meter-high small apartments with shared communal spaces on the ground and top floors of the condominium. Learn more about StudioHomes at SATO’s website. Listen to the interviews