50 years old | Good design work requires empathy, says architect Helena Sandman: “If you designed a house without thinking about how people perceive the facilities, the connection to the community would be lost”

Design office Leapfrog Projects is a consortium that was probably hoped for when Aalto University was founded and architects, engineers, designers and economists were brought together. The shareholders of the office are the architect Helena Sandmanin in addition to the economist Sara Lindemanentrepreneur Thomas Holm and designer Sara Gottschalk.

Leapfrog Projects is currently involved in sustainable development projects in Africa. In Tanzania, a project is underway to reduce deforestation by creating a local, sustainable furniture industry. The corona pandemic has delayed the rescue of a residential area and a polluted lake in Tunis.

Helena Sandman began to go to Africa as early as his studies in the 1990s. During the student tour in Senegal, contacts were made that led to the establishment of the Hollmén-Reuter-Sandman Architects and the design of the Women’s House in a town called Rufisque, 50 kilometers from Dakar. The house was completed in 2001 and has been widely featured in both the domestic and foreign press.

An essential idea Saija Hollménin, Jenni Reuterin and Helena Sandman – as well as Leapfrog Projects – that the implementation is done in collaboration with the locals and that the materials are also local, close by.

Helena Sandman has known Jenni Reuter since school, she became acquainted with Saija Hollmén during her studies. The trio later received an invitation Alessandro from Araven to present their projects at the Venice Biennale in 2016.

Sandman’s work with Hollmén-Reuter-Sandman and their NGO Ukumb continues alongside Leapfrog Projects. The last of the trio completed a girls ’dormitory in Tanzania, which was recently awarded the Architecture of Necessity Award. Next year, the trio will represent Finland in Spain at the Concentrico architecture and design festival.

Leapfrog Projects aims to implement the idea of ​​empathy in design work of Helena Sandman’s dissertation completed last year. The people who will be using the building must be involved in the projects from the outset.

Designers can experience their needs at many different stages of the design process. It can happen through the imagination, imagining oneself as a future user and collaborating with users. It is more in-depth involvement than informing residents in a few residents ’meetings.

“I’m exploring different methods of engaging people, as well as theoretically how the concept of empathy is used in architecture and design at different stages of design,” Sandman says.

“The boundaries and stages of home and public are important for a lifetime. If you designed a house without thinking about how people would feel about the facilities, the connection to the community would be lost. Architecture can have a lot of impact on people’s lives and the world of experience, ”Sandman estimates, adding that in Finland it would be valuable to involve more residents and appreciate the richness that multiculturalism brings.

In Tanzania, people sit outside their houses and face the squares after work. Encounter opportunities should be developed here as well. It takes a little ingenuity and open-mindedness to find new ways.

Different cultures have always interested Sandman. Even in his youth Travel was not very common or at least his ceramic mother-in-law could not afford it. Sandman thought he wanted a profession where he could travel. He got into the architecture department on the first try.

“I used all the opportunities during my studies: I went on an exchange to Paris, studied African dance, was in Guinea for a month and traveled to Senegal with the course,” he recalls. Today, however, the benefits of traveling must always be weighed against the disadvantages of flying.

Sandman is convinced that the better the different approaches can be taken into account, the better the conditions will be to address sustainability challenges. He is interested in diversity. Leapfrog also considers how technology can help bring people and different groups of people together in design.

Sandman taught at Aalto University in 2008–2019. In addition, he was a professor of architecture for one year in Hong Kong and a second-year visiting professor in a postgraduate course at the University of Architecture in Linz, Austria.