RURAL CULTURE REGENERATION 93
school active and to keep it open we need people to move here with their families. Working in the village and working remotely is very do-able. Te train goes from (nearby) Kaaria to Helsinki and to Turku.’ Tere has also been recent investment
elsewhere in the region to amuse and sustain aesthetically oriented travellers. Te Baro hotel opened in 2021 – an exquisite collection of subtle but sophisticated timber-clad cabins perched high in a forest along the coast. Te scheme was the brainchild of developers, interior designers and entrepreneurs Netta and Jussi Paavoseppa (working with architect Lena Weckstrom of Helsinki-based Macao Design). Te Paavoseppa duo was then invited by Fiskars village to bring their trademark dark palette, soft lighting and luxurious materials vibe here, refurbishing the Torby hotel in 2023, set in a 19th-century building where fine cutlery and chandeliers used to be made. In the nearby coastal village of Ekenas,
Alvar Aalto’s delightful Villa Skeppet – one of his last private houses, designed for his great friend, the Finnish travel writer Göran Schildt and his wife Christine – has just been
fully refurbished and reinstated as the light- filled home the writer and his wife enjoyed, including paintings on the wall by Aalto. Also, the town’s local art gallery and
museum Chappe Art House has been expanded with a striking new wing, by Helsinki-based JKMM Architects, which transformed the capital’s Amos Rex Gallery in 2018. A few minutes’ drive away from Fiskars
and Ekenas, there’s a quality of almost found space to the former iron foundry stronghold of Billnas. With around 20 buildings scattered alongside a river, grass grows long on the verges, cobbled paths meander from one industrial building to another, several of the structures are still shrouded in decades of disuse. But all have a scale and grandeur appropriate to this having been an iron production powerhouse for over 300 years. At its height there were 1,000 employees working here. But all seems sleepy and easeful now; I even spotted two donkeys being taken for a walk on my visit in September 2023. But for Finnish events management guru Olli Muurainen, the slow regeneration of this site as a place for
conferences, festivals and executive retreats, has become his legacy project. Te city of Rasebourg bought the site off
the Fiskars company – which had acquired it in the mid 20th century but sold it in the 1980s – and they spent over a decade looking for a buyer who could revitalise the buildings while preserving their history. Tey approached Muurainen in 2008, as a celebrated Finnish entrepreneur (albeit living in Singapore). He says: ‘Tere was sleet everywhere. Garbage everywhere. Trees and bushes nobody had taken care of for over 20 years. But I could see that it was a beautiful spot. ‘Te oldest elements are foundations
of the bridge from 1690. There are 15 buildings from the 1770s. Most of the buildings are from 1800s. We have a few that are 19th century. Tis place has seen all the industrial stages: basic iron, tools, furniture, and then been abandoned for 30 years. I thought I could make it transition to the service economy. I made my decision with my heart not my brain.’ Tough Muurainen declares that he’s
Both images The former iron foundry stronghold of Billnas features multiple buildings. Seven, so far, have been restored and refurbished at a cost of €10m. They include a main event space, plus a 1896 building, formerly the HQ, which is now a 1930s-styled hotel. There are seven more buidling to be refurbished
‘very sensitive to aesthetics – I don’t need an architect to do visualisations for me, I can just close my eyes and just see it’, he worked with restoration specialists Rakennusliike Heinämaa to help restore and refurbish seven of the buildings, at a cost of €10m. Tere are seven more to go. Te emphasis has been on stripping back to reveal the bones of these buildings and make minimal additions – luckily, the buildings have very good bones. Tere are currently two hotels, a restaurant, a museum (of woodwork, in one of the two surviving furniture factories) and several event spaces, including the most spectacular: a triple-height blast furnace hall that, with light pouring in from its raised, ventilated roof structure, feels almost like a cathedral. A 1930s former minimarket that used to serve the workers has been converted into a kind of executive den, with conference suite, screening room and sauna. Still in its early days, the main customer
group is Swedes – ‘there is nothing like this in Sweden’, says Muurainen. Te business is ‘anything from small management teams for 20-30 people, then weddings, and stand -up comedy on Saturdays. We had 300 people last Saturday (at a comedy gig). We had a rock concert last week too. Ten employee parties. Tere’s a very wide range of events. Tis place is quite unique.’ Tough the place is shut for the winter
(Finnish winters being too harsh to tempt out even the most hardened, nature-loving executives), Muurainen has built that seasonality into his business model, and enjoys 70% occupancy rates from spring to autumn. He seems in it for the long haul. ‘It’s a very expensive hobby for me but it gives me a purpose. It’s symbolic, bringing a community back to life. ‘We are more than halfway through the
project. So maybe in seven years’ time it will look as I envisaged.’
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