Swedish Heritage management

NATALIYA HULUSJÖ
Swedish National Heritage Board

When we look back at the history of the Swedish heritage management during the past 100 years, we can distinguish three major phases when heritage concerns and matters have enlarged its circles. Firstly we have the migration from the countryside to the urban areas. The response was to start collecting artifacts and stories from the peasant cultures as well as creating the outdoor museum Skansen.

Then we had the huge transformation of the rivers landscapes as the hydro electric power dams were built in the thirties and forties. This was the beginning of the Swedish surveying of cultural heritage and rescue archaeology.

In the beginning of the sixties another large urbanization created the need for housing. Huge apartment complexes and villa carpets spread on old settlements and the excavations grew to large proportions. Modern heritage management was created and when city center demolitions in the sixties and the energy crisis of the seventies resulted in wrecked historic areas, the public opinion gave voice and heritage management was soon to follow. Each of these changes has given us an opportunity to widen our claims. And in the midst of the gloom of climate change there are possibilities.

Now we can act in a proactive way and offer our services when the transformation of the landscape will take place. New and old energy crops will be cultivated, new and old patterns to organize our urban areas and dwellings require a joint effort between new and old technology and knowledge. When we put all that money into reshaping the landscape, we might just as well do it properly, esthetically and historically well thought through. We are now creating experiment areas where this can be tested and discussed as well as introducing these ideas in cross sector government work.