Seve Ehituse AS featured in In Time – inflight magazine of Estonian Air

20 years and 850 homes

A 20-year-old person is full of vitality, new ideas, wanting to change the world. For a company that old you should add experience, good reputation and commitment to details to that list, as most companies would not last that long without those characteristics. One of such family undertakings that can be characterised with the abovementioned words is the producer of timber framed element houses – Seve Ehituse AS, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. As if to prove that Seve Ehituse AS is doing the right thing, a few weeks ago Eurostat published their statistics for 2013, according to which Estonia with its 1.3 million people was the largest exporter of timber houses in Europe, whereas the only country with bigger numbers in the whole world is Canada. Seve Ehitus with its will and capability to produce houses that are also valued elsewhere has an important role in this success story of Estonia too. Seve’s high-quality, energy efficient buildings that last through time have been built for more than 850 families in Norway, Finland, Estonia and Switzerland.

Quality and energy conservation

Today people often forget that a new building will have two important expenses one should observe when building a house: the construction price and subsequent heating and cooling bills. Generally it comes as an unexpected surprise that it is expensive to live in your new home. From the beginning Seve has tried to offer its clients the best solution that can be offered by a modern company that respects engineering work – a high-quality and warm house. Energy efficient and high-quality

houses are definitely not cheap, as cheap would mean accepting average and common solutions. Seve is not about that. All houses produced here have at least energy efficiency class of A and the idea of energy efficiency is always developed

to the end. Seve has learned its lessons about energy efficiency and quality in the harsh Arctic climate. The company has been delivering various houses to Hammerfest, Tromsø, Bodø and Kirkenes for 12 years already. One could joke

that the Arctic has been more like a home market to Seve than Estonia. To show our clients as well as our employees that things that at first seem impossible can become true, we take on

seriously challenging projects together. One of these was the northernmost passive house that was finished in 2011 and introduced at the Finnish housing fair in Kokkola, but also the first plus-energy houses built in Estonia in

2014. These houses produce energy with the solar panels installed on the roof, so the houses are like small power plants. This has become possible due to the fact that Seve Ehituse AS is the first house manufacturer in Estonia whose houses have been issued energy performance certificates starting with a subtraction mark – the buildings do not consume, but produce energy. Energy conservation is the only possible way in the future.

As of 2019 all public sector buildings in Europe must be built as near-zero energy buildings and as of 2021 this requirement extends to private sector buildings. As these rules will become effective soon, Seve recommends all its clients to build a house that will be modern and comply to all requirements also in five years. In the certified working environment located in the small Lehetu Village, Seve’s workers produce in total 12,000 m² of various houses per year

. Traditionally timber houses are associated with private houses, but Seve has changed the meaning of this concept for the company and its clients. Why limit the acquired skills only with private houses? Over the years also several apartment buildings have been manufactured in cooperation with architects and engineers and the first low-energy kindergarten was established in the Norwegian town of Kirkenes located in Finnmark County. This turned out so good that the neighbouring community

wanted such energy efficient solution too, so in February 2015 already the second kindergarten manufactured in the Lehetu factory was erected in Norway.

More modern Estonian design, more architects

The more you do, the more you want to get done and the more experience you gain. Seve can build and has built a large part of what Estonian, Scandinavian and Swiss architects have come up with. By today the cooperation experience with architects that has lasted for two decades has become official cooperation, providing new opportunities for both parties. In spring 2015, eight well-known architecture firms and architects will create a completely new housing catalogue for Seve’s clients. Creating the catalogue will destroy the artificial opposition – an architect’s house vs. a factory house, as these will be one and the same. This will give Estonian architects a unique opportunity to sell modern Estonian architecture outside their home market as well.