Kauniaisten huvilakaupunki (Grankulla villastad)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

Kauniainen is one of Finland's earliest villa towns. Green and spacious suburban and garden cities have, at the beginning of the 20th century, sought to create good living environments close to nature as a counterweight to urbanisation.

The large plots and the road network following the contours of the terrain are based on the town plan drawn up by architect Lars Sonck. In particular, on the south side of Gallträsk lake, the community structure of the early 20th century has survived: large plots, lush planned gardens, substantial residential buildings, separate caretakers' dwellings, and street views lined by hedges and stone fences. The villa area, which has retained its character, has shrunk with dense residential construction.

The villas of the area are the work of both master builders and architects. Well-known architects who designed in Kauniainen include, besides Lars Sonck, among others, Max Frelander, Selim A. Lindqvist and Bertel Jung. Svante and Paul Olsson have also influenced the creation of the area's gardens and parks.

History

European suburbs and garden cities arose as a result of urban growth: the desire to create a good living environment close to nature was seen as a solution to the problems of urbanisation. The ideal spread to Finland at the beginning of the 20th century. The first villa suburbs in European style came about here on the initiative of private individuals.

The population of Helsinki grew rapidly at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, which led to a shortage of plots suitable for building, a rise in the price of building land, and more intensive construction than before. At the same time, the view that life in the countryside and closeness to nature had a positive effect spread among the educated classes. Hills and sand ridges like those at Kauniainen, growing dry upland forest, were regarded as ideal places to live from the point of view of health. The good transport links created by the building of railways made it possible to develop park-like surroundings close to the capital.

The building masters Elia Heikel and Emil Lindstedt acquired a 38-hectare tract of land around the Kavalli ratsutila, on the shore of Gallträsk, at the end of 1901. During the same year the area was surveyed, mapped and divided into plots. The basic framework of the road network was also built there. It had already been decided in 1897 that part of the Helsingin-Karjaan rata railway would be built across the area, which guaranteed the planned villa town good connections to Helsinki in the future.

Kauniainen's future garden-like character took shape as early as 1901-1905, when Heikel and Lindstedt built their own villas on large plots on the shore of Gallträsk. Construction picked up in 1906, when Aktiebolaget Grankulla was founded. On the initiative of the new company, the Kauniainen halt was converted into a station, and the station building was completed in 1908. The company also commissioned the architect Lars Sonck to draw up a town plan for the area. Its fundamental aim was Kauniainen's character as a garden city and spacious plots of more than 3000 m² each. By 1912, almost 500 properties had already been formed in Kauniainen.