From obscurity to heritage: Canonisation of the Nordic Wooden Town

Abstract

Art historian Juan Pablo Bonta has presented a nine-step model for analysing how the interpretation of architectural oeuvres becomes canonised. We suggest that in terms of the built heritage, canonisation and heritagisation are essentially the same process, so Bonta's model can be used for analysing heritagisation processes. This article testifies to this assumption by examining how the interpretation of historic Nordic wooden towns became stabilised in Finland. The concept was introduced in the 1960s to describe the Nordic urban heritage that was threatened by massive town development projects. The identification of the heritage category enabled the preservation of some remaining wooden districts. Examining this process allows us to discuss the role of expertise in the building preservation. In the case of wooden towns, experts' early recognition was a crucial precondition for the preservation of the heritage, which enabled novel generations to form a living relationship with it. Seen through the experts' writings, the heritagisation process of the wooden towns also reflect the expanding scope of the built heritage discipline. Based on our findings, the canonisation model is applicable not only to the individual oevres, as Bonta addresses, but also to broader built environments and, more conceptually, to heritage categories.

Betonia, metsää, mielikuvia

“…Äikäs, 2021). Toisaalta monissa viimeaikaisissa tutkimuksissa on korostettu myös ammattinäkökulman merkitystä historiallisissa ja nykyään erittäin arvokkaina pidettyjen alueiden ja kaupunkien suojeluprosesseissa (Kivilaakso, 2017;Kalakoski et al, 2019).…”

World heritage designation and residential property values: the case of Old Rauma, Finland

“…However, due to heritage enthusiasts and residents campaigning for the preservation of the Old Rauma built heritage, the outcome was a rejection of demolition, despite weak national preservation legislation (Vahtikari, 2017). This marked the model for projects in the urban conservation of traditional wooden settlements in Northern Europe, with Old Rauma chosen as an exemplar of "Nordic Wooden Town" projects (Kalakoski et al, 2020). Following this, the municipality, together with six local associations, established the Old Rauma Foundation in 1976 for further protection of the built heritage, as detailed by Haanp€ a€ a et al (2019).…”

“…ICOMOS assessed that the cultural site possesses outstanding universal value because of its "living" commercial, residential and services area. These two criteria are prerequisites for UNESCO protection (Haanp€ a€ a et al, 2019; Kalakoski et al, 2020;UNESCO, n.d.). This means that local and national heritage practices for the conservation of Old Rauma's historic fabric were refined to correspond with the expanding international guidelines such as the establishment of a buffer zone around Old Rauma (Sonkoly and Vahtikari, 2018).…”

“…However, due to heritage enthusiasts and residents campaigning for the preservation of the Old Rauma built heritage, the outcome was a rejection of demolition, despite weak national preservation legislation (Vahtikari, 2017). This marked the model for projects in the urban conservation of traditional wooden settlements in Northern Europe, with Old Rauma chosen as an exemplar of “Nordic Wooden Town” projects (Kalakoski et al. , 2020).…”

“…These two criteria are prerequisites for UNESCO protection (Haanpää et al. , 2019; Kalakoski et al. , 2020; UNESCO, n.d.).…”