Könönpellon asevelikylä

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Könönpelto is an important example of an industrial company's aim to create, in the locality, high-quality, uniform and regulated working-class residential areas based on standard house designs.

Könönpelto consists of a southern and a northern residential area, divided by the railway line. The town plans for the areas, as well as the type drawings for numerous one-and-a-half-storey, pitched-roofed wooden houses, were prepared by architect Alvar Aalto on commission from A. Ahlström Oy. The house type intended for each plot was specified. The company wished to influence the residential area of its employees to be a "purposeful, modern, tidy and pleasant community". Because the building of the area is linked to the Winter War and Continuation War periods, the area also contains houses donated by the company, the so-called invalid and front-line veterans' houses.

History

When more housing was needed in Varkaus at the turn of the 1940s, A. Ahlström Oy established a new Könönpelto detached-house area on its own land east of the town centre for its employees. The company strongly guided the construction.

On the company's commission, architect Alvar Aalto drew up the town plan for the detached-house area south of the railway in 1941-42. The area comprised a dozen or so small-house blocks. The internal roads of the area were made narrow and to follow the forms of the terrain. The plan defined the house type for each plot from Ahlström's standard house range, as well as the placement of the buildings on the plot. The plots were sold to the company's employees.

First, ten small houses intended by A. Ahlström Oy for its war veterans, the so-called invalid houses, were built in 1942. The houses were of type 35 of the AA system designed by Aalto, and they were sold at a nominal price to men who had been wounded in the war and had served the company.

In 1944 Aalto also designed a town plan, corresponding to the southern part, for the large residential area north of the railway. The houses in the area were built according to Ahlström's new A-house range. Five house types were on offer, which could be built on the plots specified in the plan. Detached houses could be built by the owner or using ready-made elements from a house factory. For self-built construction the company offered building drawings and work instructions. A factory-made house was erected by the company.

After the wars, A. Ahlström Oy donated 204 plots in Könönpelto to front-line men who had worked at the company. The condition of the donation was that they remain in the company's employ.