HERITAGE IN DANGER
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Malmi airport from the sky
Stairs inside the main building
Heritage List. This line of action seems also the most promising to the team of experts of the 7 Most Endangered Programme, who visited the site in 2016. They stressed the importance of the airport as living heritage and stated that “the modernist buildings at Malmi airport are of outstanding international value, offering not only an excellent example of preserved modernist aviation architecture, but bearing witness also to the extraordinary progressive period between the two world wars. Following heritage legislation in other European countries, the buildings should be protected in their full context, that is to say the entire airport landscape of the flying field with its runways. This means keeping the airport in use.”
It is not over yet. Helsinki’s new General Plan proposes to fill the airport with apartment blocks to be constructed in the early 2020s and the state will withdraw – or by the time of printing has withdrawn – all its operations from the airport. All aircraft should officially leave the hangars by 16 May 2017. The Friends of Malmi Airport are still actively protesting to keep their cause alive. This nonprofit civic association
The 7 Most Endangered Programme All over Europe, monuments and heritage sites are in danger. Some due to lack of resources or expertise, others due to neglect or inadequate planning. To find a sustainable future for these important sites, Europa Nostra teamed up with the European Investment Bank Institute and launched the 7 Most Endangered Programme, with the Council of Europe Development Bank as associated partner. It is a new way to draw attention to threatened European monuments and sites. It helps communities by bringing
public and private partners together and by generating creative ideas and sustainable solutions. In short, the aim is to use cultural heritage as a generator for positive change. The closing date for new nominations for the 7 Most Endangered List 2018 is 30 June 2017. The 7 Most Endangered Programme has received the support of the Creative Europe programme of the European Union since 2014, as part of Europa Nostra’s network project ‘Mainstreaming Heritage’.
(see malmiairport.fi/en) has filed a complaint against the City’s new General Plan in the Administrative Court and its application for protecting the whole airport based on the Act on the Protection of Buildings is pending in the Uusimaa Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment. A citizens’ law initiative, Lex Malmi, for protecting the airport and its aviation use, is now in Parliament after reaching the required minimum of 50,000 supporters in record time. Private citizens are also joining the fight. Designer Jutta Kuure, for instance, has just launched a collection of bags and cushions using photos of the airport and has sent the cushions to Michelle Obama, John Travolta, Tony Robbins and even Harrison Ford. Maybe if Han Solo lands his Millenium Falcon on Malmi Airport, the authorities will finally be convinced to let the airport and its important heritage fly off to a new future. Check out the latest developments and all the other sites on the 7 Most Endangered list by going to 7mostendangered.eu