XX. századi műemlékek és védelmük (A 26. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1996 Eger, 1996)

Előadások: - Maija Kairamo: The rebuilding of the Olympic Satadium of Helsinki 1991-94

only the wooden parts of the benches would be renewed, while the iron parts were sandblasted, repainted and reused. It was difficult to enter the project in the middle of the work. The attitudes towards protection were unfriendly and adverse. The attitude in the project had simply been to rebuild the whole Stadium and modernize it without any respect for the existing old rotten past. Only little could be saved. The scale of the concrete constructions is enormous, and in the noisy, fast and large process the preservation of some small details was considered useless peanuts. Fortunately, the architect, who in the beginning had not understood the values of protection but rather had ideas to create a new look for the Stadium (e.g. to paint the stages blue and white like the Finnish flag), soon agreed with the protection. This almost three year repair process taught a lot. It was depressing to realize that concrete constructions are far from eternal, they are vulnerable, in need of continuous maintenance and are difficult or impossible to repair. My generation was educated to believe in continuous scientific and technical progress and now I understood that much of that was false. The contemporary world like the stadium is built mainly of concrete. Modern housing, highways and bridges, and new city centres created by modern building technology, are fragile. We are facing and enormous task. We are obliged to live with these modern constructions and to find methods to keep them is an economical way. During this century mankind has built more than during all the earlier generations. This generation has spread human influence to every corner of the globe and the effects have mostly been harmful for the earth, waters and air. The renovation process of the Stadium taught us that the eternal beauty, which was expressed in the modern architecture of the 30s, was a dream. Now we are facing the reality, we have to choose what will be preserved of the buildings of the modern movement. At present the inventories of the modern movement architecture are being made in many countries. The built environment will be rebuilt and only some gems of modern architecture will be protected as monuments. The Olympic Stadium of Helsinki is to my mind such a gem. Although it lost its material and technical authenticity during the renovation, it still has its symbolic value left. It may not be valued by dogmatic antiquarians, but it still is our Olympic Stadium symbolizing modernity, belief in healthier and better future.