A blue house with green ambitions

Blue House in Malmö, Sweden

Blåa Huset is a new-build office in Lockarp outside of Malmö, Sweden. The vision of the project was very clear from the beginning - to build Malmö's most modern and energy efficient office.

The main challenges were then to reach an advanced level of energy efficiency, to choose sustainable construction materials and to strive for long-lived solutions while making sure the building was provided with the best indoor climate. A complete indoor climate solution was chosen from Swegon and, according to the building owner, the entire process was eased by the decision to only have one preferred supplier for this.

This project was the subject of the paper "The Blue House with Green Ambitions", presented at the 2024 ASHRAE International Building Decarbonization Conference.

In many aspects, an impressive office

The business park in Lockarp is strategically located right outside of Malmö, with the highway and city nearby. Blåa Huset is an office building of three stories and a total of 2 000 m2.

The bottom level is split between an office and a warehouse and the two above stories features enclosed workplaces and office landscapes. The entire building offers an impressive indoor environment with carefully chosen interiors, wonderful furniture in soothing colours and a perfect indoor climate.

Swegon as a single supplier

The building owner of Blåa Huset, Mattias Feldt, has in previous projects been working with a number of suppliers of indoor climate solutions, a common method in the construction industry. However, it was prioritised in this case, to find one preferred supplier in order to ensure that the best possible indoor climate was provided to the building.

Through a wide range of products and extensive experience, the choice of Swegon was made, and Mattias Feldt can identify a number of advantages of working with Swegon as a single supplier. The partnership started in the earliest phases of the project and continued through installation, commissioning and hand-over. Mattias says that the support from Swegon, even after project completion, has been responsive and helpful, simply very valuable.

Why Swegon

An optimal indoor climate and low energy use

One of the main challenges with Blåa Huset was to provide an optimal indoor climate and still pay greatest respect to the energy use of the building.

A complete solution for a demand controlled indoor climate, as long as it is well installed and commissioned, allows an optimal indoor climate at the right time. It ventilates, heats and cools neither too much – which is energy inefficient – nor too little – which negatively affects comfort. In this case, our Swegon WISE system for demand controlled ventilation was provided. It adjusts the indoor climate to the exact need, when it is needed and enables great comfort and productivity in the premises. Adjustments of the indoor climate are, in this case, initiated by VOC monitoring.

The more recently launched water optimisation function between WISE and the chiller, cut energy use by 10-13%. Well in line with the requirements on energy efficiency in the building.

Read our blog, New water optimisation function in WISE

The support from Swegon has been fantastic

Mattias Feldt, property owner Blåahuset AB

Making the invisible visible

Swegon INSIDE is an umbrella name for our digital solutions used to visualise and manage the indoor climate. In terms of Blåa Huset, we have worked closely with a reference group of both the building owner and tenants to develop these solutions and bring them to market.

The dashboard available in Swegon INSIDE Analytics as well as the INSIDE App is available in Blåa Huset. Both solutions give an overview of the indoor climate and allow some adjustments to be made, for instance, to the indoor temperature. The colour indications and symbols give a clear overview and make the screen and app intuitive and user-friendly.

It was acknowledged by the tenants that the INSIDE solutions are straightforward to use and that they give a positive impression of the indoor climate. If someone one day feels chilly in the office, but can see in the app that the room temperature is satisfactory, they are more likely to change perception of the indoor climate. They might instead look for an answer to their chill in their clothes, sleep or energy intake.

Swegon is one of the best suppliers and is always, one way or another, a part of our projects

Anders Ekelund, VD Novum Installation AB

Blue House was a partnering project

Aside from the close partnership and cooperation between Blåahuset AB and Swegon, this entire construction development was carried out as a partnering project. That is a model for how different project partners are teaming up under one budget and commit to trustful transparency between each other. Meetings and discussions are held together, across businesses, and the completion of the project is of everyones' outmost priority.

The contracted installer in this case was Novum Installation AB. Read more about their view of the indoor climate solution as well as the cooperation with Swegon.

Learn more