Kommila-Kosulanniemen asuinalue

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The Kommila-Kosulanniemi residential area is part of the community that the Varkaus factories gave rise to. The residential area, built according to garden city ideals, also contains the community's modern church.

Kommila-Kosulanniemi lies on a headland projecting east of Varkaus church. The structure of the area is based on the town plan drawn up by Valter and Ivar Thomé. The villa-like buildings date from the 1910s and 1920s. At the church end of the area stands Onnela, a two-storey, terrace-like officials' building designed in the 1930s by A.H. Gunnar Aspelin.

To the north-west of Varkaus church is a uniform workers' housing area. Its five mansard-roofed rental houses named Niittylä and the barracks named Korpela were built in the 1910s to the drawings of the Thomé brothers.

Next to the factory area survive the housing for lower officials and foremen, originally built in the 1910s: Koivula I, II, III and IV, as well as the factory officials' houses designed by the Thomé brothers: Tienkorva I, Tienhaara I and II, Tienvarsi I and II, and Peltola I. On the shore of Komminselkä is the Viltinranta sauna designed by Karl Lindahl, completed in 1925 for workers' use. The area also contains the Varkauden Suomalainen yhteiskoulu, completed in 1921, and the elementary school designed by Karl Lindahl, completed in 1924.

The church, one of the landmark works of modern church architecture, together with its associated parish facilities and parsonage, stands on a plot donated by A. Ahlström Oy, at the corner of Ahlströminkatu and Savontie. The 35-metre-high tower with its clock, built as an extension of the parish hall beside the church, forms an impressive terminus for Ahlströminkatu. The church, rendered in a pale brownish colour, is austere. The facades, whose overall character is functionalist, are lightened by carefully considered details in natural stone, such as the three-part granite portal of the main entrance and the stone masonry at the base of the tall bell tower.

The nave, which narrows towards the altar, is covered by a wave-like concrete vault. The chancel wall is covered by a fresco painted by Lennart Segerstråle in 1953-1954. The church's fixed furnishings and light fittings are largely from the time of construction. The interior and rooms of the parish hall have been altered.

History

Kosulanniemi takes its name from Paavo and Heikki Kosonen, who owned the headland in the 16th century. Construction of the villa area began in 1912, with the Thomé architect brothers as designers; in the 1920s architect Karl Lindahl continued the planning. In the 1940s architect Alvar Aalto prepared alteration plans to repair the building stock.

The Varkaus factory parish, founded in 1861 within the parish of Leppävirta, became independent in 1932. Like those of other factory localities, its first church was a combined church and elementary school building, which also included a priest's residence. The site of the new, present church at the end of Ahlströminkatu was already included in the first town plan proposal made by the Thomé brothers in 1913.

The church and its ancillary premises were built to the proposal of architect Martti Paalanen, who won second prize in the architectural competition held in 1935, and it was consecrated for use in November 1939.