Lapuan Patruunatehdas

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

The Valtion Patruunatehdas in Lapua is associated with the building up of a decentralised military equipment industry after independence. The cartridge factory is a good example of a once-closed industrial area being brought into new use.

The compact factory area, on the bank of the Lapuanjoki in the centre of Lapua, has some thirty buildings. The oldest of them date from the 1910s. Since 1923 the state has built on its land over seven decades, and the most recent building is the head office, completed in 1980. The building design of the 1920s-1930s was the responsibility of Onni Tarjannne, architect of the Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus. Most of the oldest buildings have facades that are either red brick or rendered. The canteen has a log frame and vertical boarding.

The Patruunatehdas area has been completely closed industrial land since its founding in the 1920s. After the cartridge factory moved away, the factory area passed to the city in 1993 and was brought into new use. The main factory building of the area, named Vanha Pauku, houses the city library as well as exhibition and adult education institute premises. The Työkalutehdas contains, among other things, a theatre space, the central storehouse has commercial premises, and the smithy has a chapel. The art museum in the Lataamo building was designed by architect Juha Leiviskä. The planning of the area was the responsibility of city architect Helena Teräväinen.

History

Lapua manufacturer Eino Lahdensuo built a factory on the bank of the Lapuanjoki river in the late 1910s, but its operations never started, and the site passed into the ownership of Lapuan Sähkö Oy. In 1923 the state decided to establish a rifle cartridge factory as part of the wide and decentralised construction of defence equipment industry launched after the country became independent. South Ostrobothnia and Lapua kirkonkylä were chosen as the location for the cartridge factory, and a plot with its buildings was bought from Lapuan Sähkö Oy. The cartridge factory plot was within easy reach of good transport connections. The plot was extended in 1924, and in 1927 land for a shooting range was acquired from the nearby Huhtaneva.

The two factory buildings on the plot were renovated, and the area was supplemented according to plans drawn up by Onni Tarjanne, architect of the National Board of Public Buildings (Yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus). In the first phase, Tarjanne designed, among other things, the alteration of the brick-built factory building and the new buildings for a canteen, a loading house and a gas plant. The entire production area was enclosed by a high fence. The stock of red-brick buildings grew in the 1930s, when the factory was extended and, among other things, a tool factory, a long central storehouse, a heating centre, a transformer station and an office were built. The first precast concrete element buildings were erected in the 1970s, when, among other things, an extension to the tool factory closed off a second large courtyard area, and the head office was completed in 1980.

An explosion accident occurred at the factory in 1976, and operations began to be moved outside the town centre. The city of Lapua bought the old area of the cartridge factory from the state in 1993. A development plan for the area was drawn up in 1994. Based on this plan, the area was developed as a cultural and business area.