Sustainable Heritage was the name of an international project within the field of building conservation. Thanks to a group of inspired teachers, excellent craftsmen and open–minded students the cooperation resulted in more than a dozen successful intensive weeks over the past years. The project was established in the year 2007 among three universities—Novia UAS in Finland, Uppsala University in Sweden and Estonian Academy of Arts. The courses were hosted by the three universities in turns… derived from the unique historic surroundings of each university campus every course featured a new theme.
When students of different disciplines meet, they naturally exchange ideas and experiences and develop contacts over cultural, national, professional and language barriers. At the same time their hands-on work during each course and the obtained new insights in the field of conservation have contributed in their professional lives to the rescue and maintenance of the built heritage. Several hundred students of architectural conservation, conservation of artefacts and paintings, structural engineering and site management from the three universities have taken part in both the practical and theoretical education of the Sustainable Heritage courses. The conclusions of these experiences are presented in professional reports—nine of which are shown here.
While the described cooperation continues on university level another theme of conservation has sprung to life, namely saving the windmills of Finland. The continuation of this web site is dedicated to presenting the wonders of Finnish windmills and the extensive and versatile subject of looking after them in an appropriate manner. Finnish windmills have never been studied properly, except for two occasions: once in the 1970’s, when Rex Wailes and Auvo Hirsjärvi wrote four small, concise booklets based on their travels around the country, and today by Leo van der Drift and Kirsti Horn who have collected information and taken photographs for the worldwide mill database which is run by several Central European mill societies (The International Molinological Society, Schweizer Mühlenfreunde, DGM Baden–Württemberg and Mühlenvereinigung Niedersachen/Bremen). We know now that the windmill heritage is truly rich and unique in Finland… stay with us and read more. Tietoa Suomen vanhoista tuulimyllyistä. Läs vidare om finska väderkvarnar…
