Helena Sandman is an Architect specialised in emphatic design in resource-constrained environments.

She is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Design as part of the New Global research group. Her research is on user engagement in the architectural design process striving for social sustainability. Through housing design in rapidly urbanising areas and maternity ward design in low-resource settings she investigates the paradox of replicating a design concept while still rooting the design locally.
She was employed as assistant professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong 2005–06 and is teaching the course Interplay of Cultures at the department of Architecture at Aalto University since 2009. She is lecturing regularly world-wide.
Helena is founding member of Ukumbi NGO providing architecture as a means of development. She has her own architecture firm, Helena Sandman Ltd and is a partner in Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects Ltd. The work of Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects has been honoured with both national and international prestigious awards and have been published and exhibited widely. Their work was exhibited for the third time at the Venice Architecture biennale in May 2016.