Today is Lau Church. Lau Church -- the fabulous centre of a medieval parish on Gotland-- has a problem. It's so cold in winter the faithful can't use it but heating would damage the precious murals and wooden interiors -- and cost a small fortune which would have to be found by a dwindling congregation.The answer -- devised by Tor Brostrom from Gotland University -- is to heat the people not the space. So the people in these pictures are being measured for comfort and warmth as they are heated from below by underfloor heating and from above by infra-red heaters placed inside chandeliers made by a Visby blacksmith and modelled on other medieval chandeliers in the church. According to Stefan Haase, Museum Curator, the church is now used outwith the short, warm Gotland summer (May-September), energy is being saved, and so is the priceless Church interior. And the temperature beside the heated congregation area -- minus two!
somehow this seems 100% better than politics ;)
i hope your writing career recieves its lovely due credit, and that you're far enough away from the Beeb not to return to its' fire of civilisation.
Posted by: bru | February 01, 2010 at 06:26 PM