Karihaaran tehdasyhdyskunta

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Karihaara factory community is a key site in the industrial history of Northern Finland. It illustrates the considerable influence of a major forestry company (Kemiyhtiö 1893-1991) in Lapland and the company's capacity, through its own building activity in the 1900s–1950s, to meet the housing and service needs of its different groups of employees.

The old centre of the factory community has kept its unity and distinctive character. Its structure and parkland character are based on comprehensive plans from the first half of the 20th century. The former head office of Kemiyhtiö (1936) and its garage (1935) are located along the main road, as are the former canteen (1937) and the fire station (1937). The architectural idiom used there by architect W.G. Palmqvist draws on classicism and culminates in the office.

Other buildings and courtyard ensembles of cultural-historical and architectural significance include, among others:
- Kemilä (1908, Victor J. Sucksdorff), completed as a hospital
- Karila (1913, Harald Andersin), a commercial building
- the doctor's residence (1918, Valter and Ivar Thomé)
- the managing director's residence (1921, Birger Federley)
- the clerks' club (1921, Birger Federley)
- the Kukkola white-collar staff residence (1927, Jarl Eklund)
- the Kontula manager's residence (1939, W.G. Palmqvist)

The residential area Mäntylä, consisting of 12 wooden apartment buildings built by the company in 1945, is located further east in the district of the same name.

Karihaara's industry operates on its original sites on two islands at the mouth of the Kemijoki river: the pulp and cardboard mills on Pajusaari, and the sawmill on Sahansaari. Both environments are entirely shaped by industrial activity, except for the northern part of Pajusaari, where there is a foremen's club (1930) and a school building (1932). The small-house area of the factory workers has been demolished from the island. Individual parts of the building stock of the pulp and cardboard mill from the 20th century have survived between the mill buildings on Pajusaari.

The brick production building of the sawmill on Sahansaari dates from 1936 (W.G. Palmqvist). The power station of the sawmill, which started operating in 1874, and its chimney are an industrial-historical building monument.

History

The first industrial plant at Karihaara was a steam sawmill owned by a Norwegian company. Its establishment in 1874 decisively accelerated the development of Kemi as an industrial and port town.

Kemiyhtiö began its operations in 1893 under the name Trävaruaktiebolaget Kemi. Its founders, the Oulu trading houses J.W. Snellman G:son and G.& C. Bergbom, carried on their business, among other things, through the above-mentioned sawmill started by the Norwegians. Kemiyhtiö began to process wood chemically by building the Pajusaari sulphite pulp mill in 1916-1919 and the sulphate pulp mill in 1927-1929. The company carried out its use of wood and its energy production in an integrated way, developing Karihaara into a versatile complex of mechanical and chemical forest industry plants.

In building its factories and community, Kemiyhtiö relied on experienced architects. For example, the town-plan design of the factory village was by Valter Thomé 1906?, W.G. Palmqvist 1934. In the fighting of the Lapland War at Karihaara, the company's workers' residential area was destroyed. The housing shortage of factory workers was eased by building the Mäntylä wooden apartment block area in 1945.

Kemiyhtiö was merged into the Metsäliitto Group in 1991, and it has belonged to the group's production plants under the name Oy Metsä-Botnia Ab Kemin tehtaat.