Littoisten verkatehdas ja Kotimäen asuinalue

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

Littoinen verkatehdas is one of the oldest and historically most significant textile factories in Finland. The area is an architecturally high-quality industrial community that arose as the result of deliberate building activity, and whose designers were among the most distinguished architects in our country. It is an example, which has well preserved its characteristic features, of a closed community that offered its members all services and opportunities for activity, which society later came to provide. Kotimäki as a workers' residential area belongs to the best of the 1920s in terms of its design, amenity and state of preservation.

The former Littoinen verkatehdas area is dominated by red-brick production buildings. The oldest of these dates from the 1820s, with the main part dating from the late 19th century and the 1920s. The area also includes an octagonal office and residential building built in the 1850s and designed by architect G. Th. Chiewitz. The old premises of the verkatehdas have mainly been converted to residential use. The production buildings are connected to an extensive workers' residential area built in the late 19th century and early 20th century, which also contains the former library and reading room building, now serving as the church of the factory community, the former workers' communal kitchen, now functioning as a club room, and the factory school, which has been converted for residential use. The residence of the factory manager, the so-called Schnittin linna, is located on a hill south of the factory. The drawings of the residential building are the work of the Hamburg architectural office of J. Schwartz. On a peninsula north-west of the factory area is the residence of the factory's technical director.

Kotimäki, a coherent and compact, park-like workers' residential area built in the 1920s, consists of gable-roofed, board-clad detached houses built according to type drawings by architect Bertel Jung.

History

The oldest industrial building of the Littoinen verkatehdas was built in 1824 on the shore of Littoinenjärvi lake. The three-storey building contained both living rooms and work halls. The building was altered in the 1850s according to drawings prepared by architect G. Th. Chiewitz. The production wings of the north-western part of the factory block were completed in 1923 to designs by architect Valter Jung.

Architect Bertel Jung drew up, in the 1920s, the free-form plan and standard house designs for the Kotimäki workers' residential area next to the factory area.

Factory operations in Littoinen ended in 1968, and the factory premises have been used for residential and commercial purposes since 1995.