Laviku - Architecture & Interior Design - NYC

MEET THE TEAM

Joanna - Maria Helinurm

Founder / Principal

Joanna-Maria Helinurm, AIA is the founder and Principal Architect of Laviku. With over a decade of experience designing entertainment and performance environments, she has developed a distinct expertise in capturing attention through deliberate spatial choreography. Her two-decade career spans global markets and encompasses concert venues, stage and performance spaces, bespoke residences, boutique hospitality, retail, cultural institutions, and workplace projects.

Her background includes stage design for artists such as Carrie Underwood and the delivery of ten consecutive Super Bowl Week activations. She has also collaborated with renowned architects including Eric Owen Moss and Michael Rotondi. Helinurm holds a Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from SCI-Arc, where she received the Best Thesis Prize.

Olav Miil

Advisor

Olav Miil is an entrepreneur and investor with deep expertise in real estate development, maritime services, and infrastructure-led growth. As a long-time board member of EfTEN Capital, one of the Baltic region’s leading real estate asset managers, he brings strategic insight into high-value property investment and complex project delivery. His track record includes guiding landmark urban developments like Maakri Kvartal in Tallinn and advising across sectors spanning shipping, construction, and finance. Miil serves as a trusted adviser to Laviku, contributing seasoned leadership and development acumen.

LAVIKU since 1729

The name Laviku comes from a family estate in the middle of the oldest national parks of Estonia — a place where time feels layered, where architecture and nature merge. That sensibility runs through our work. Every project, whether it’s a Manhattan brownstone or a Miami tower, carries this ethos: design as an ecosystem, not a backdrop. Laviku is about bringing that rootedness and human-centered intelligence into the densest urban environments.

The name Laviku comes from a family estate in Estonia — a place where time feels layered, where architecture and nature merge. That sensibility runs through our work. Every project, whether it’s a Brooklyn townhouse or a Miami tower, carries this ethos: design as an ecosystem, not a backdrop.
Laviku is about bringing that rootedness and human-centered intelligence into the densest urban environments.

DESIGNING STATES OF MIND

Architecture that improves the performance of space — operationally and cognitively.

Laviku is an architecture and design atelier working at the intersection of spatial design and human performance. We treat architecture as behavioral infrastructure—spaces structured around perception, memory, sensory experience, and cognitive diversity, shaping how different people move, focus, interact, and inhabit bespoke residences, boutique hospitality, and design-driven developments. Every spatial and material decision is informed by research on attention, multisensory processing, and human cognition. The result is architecture with a clear identity, lasting value, and a distinctive lifestyle experience.

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