The Finnish competition launch event introduced smart solutions for homes and city districts

In May, SmartUp Accelerator’s national kick-off event was organized in sunny Helsinki. It brought together startups, companies and public organizations to discuss about smart homes and living while eating pizza and drinking beer.

Buildings and built environment play a big role in our society. Did you know that people spend 90% of their time indoors? Or that a whopping 45% of the Finnish national wealth is in buildings? Naturally, buildings also use a remarkable share of energy.  As a result, adding smartness to buildings will have a huge effect on energy-efficiency, living convenience and safety, while bringing related costs significantly down.

We already have thousands of data points in our buildings and the number is increasing. “The modular revolution of building will soon make homes smart and as a result data-driven services will be needed. Buildings will become an active participant in our everyday life” said Ville Wikström, head of Fira’s internal startup Fira Modules. Furthermore, Miimu Airaksinen from RIL – The Finnish Association of Civil Engineers –  encouraged the audience to move from IoT (internet of things) to one step further to Internet of Meaningful Things. What we need is to integrate data from different sources in order to optimise the whole system.  

During the evening we also got to hear what smart means in different contexts. Naps Solar showed how one solar panel equipped car roof can produce the same amount of energy that an electric car needs in a year. Apparently Finland is much more sunny than we think. Experiments, startups and co-creation play a big part in the development of the up and coming Smart Kalasatama District. Awesome things are also happening in the City of Orimattila, where Henna – an area that got its own train station one year ago – is being developed into smart district with focus on mobility, infrastructure, homes and resource-efficiency.

The SmartUp Accelerator was launched in Helsinki to a excited audience. The SmartUp Accelerator 2018: Smart homes starts in autumn. Do you have a solution that would be a perfect fit for the challenge?

The blog is written by Katja Lairikko from Demos Helsinki, who was part of the organising team for the event. The event was organised as part of the Peloton Club concept by Demos Helsinki.