Built cultural environment

The Ostrobothnian Museum serves as an expert on the cultural environment in Ostrobothnia. Its activities focus on the preservation and management of the cultural environment, but important tasks also include the documentation of cultural environment information and development work related to the cultural environment.

The museum collaborates with various authorities, associations, communities, as well as businesses and private property owners in the Ostrobothnia region.

Statements

The museum provides official statements concerning built heritage and cultural environment for urban planning, construction, and other land use matters. Governmental work is a central aspect of cultural environment efforts.

Requests for statements, along with relevant materials, should be sent to the address museo.lausunnot@vaasa.fi.

We utilize electronic permit services such as ePermit and Lupapiste. When using these services, requests for statements should be directed to museo.lausunnot@vaasa.fi.

The division of responsibilities

The Ostrobothnian museum, as a regional entity, handles matters within the Ostrobothnia region related to:

Locally significant sites
Sites and environments protected by local and master plans
Regionally significant cultural environments
Nationally significant landscape areas
Nationally significant built cultural environments.

The Finnish Heritage Agency’s jurisdiction includes:

Buildings protected by law
Ecclesiastical heritage protected by the Church Act
Matters related to the conservation and restoration of buildings owned by the state and university heritage.

Advice on renovation and cultural heritage conservation

The museum provides advice on renovation and cultural heritage conservation issues and guides in matters of renovation grants. Advice and guidance are offered to private homeowners, municipalities, associations, and communities.

Preparing a building historical survey is a good way to start exploring the building and its phases. When embarking on building renovations, it’s important to know the history and changes of the property/buildings and examine their current condition. Often, through the history of changes, reasons for the current state of affairs can be found.

It’s advisable to document the current condition of the building when planning renovation work. Documentation should systematically cover the property, with basic aspects of structures and materials being photographed and recorded. At the same time, any problems and damages should be noted down.

With good background information about the property, it’s easier to identify the causes of problems, and then the necessary repair measures can be targeted in the right places and to the right extent. It’s important not only to repair damages but also to fix the cause of the damage.

According to the principles of preservation renovation, it’s always important to consider what can be repaired and what needs to be replaced. When replacing structural components, it’s good to use similar materials as those used in the rest of the structure, so that the whole system functions in the future. It’s also worth considering defining the scope of the repair.

Inventories and cultural environment surveys

In the region, several cultural environment surveys and building inventories are compiled annually, which contribute to increasing knowledge about the cultural environment of the area. Surveys are typically conducted in connection with municipality’s zoning or master planning work. The Ostrobothnia Museum participates in inventory projects mostly as an expert and in value assessment groups for evaluating the significance of the sites. Inventories and cultural environment surveys are utilized as background information for various types of research and studies, but their primary use is in municipal land use planning, such as zoning or road planning.

Building historical surveys are also conducted for buildings. These surveys document the building’s construction and usage history and provide an overview of its construction and alteration phases. Understanding previous changes, repairs, and extensions often helps in solving current problems with the building and identifying causes of damage.

The museum’s own inventories mainly focus on researching regional phenomena.

Ostrobothnia also hosts the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Kvarken Archipelago.

Built cultural environment