Korkalorinne ja Evakkotien rivitalot

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 Korkalorinne row house and apartment block area with its park, and the Evakkotie row house area, represent high-quality post-war urban planning and area development.

The Korkalorinne residential area was inspired by Tapiola, built in Espoo. A residential area based on garden city ideals near the Arctic Circle was the goal of Asuntosäätiö and the Rovaniemi market town. Alvar Aalto, chosen to carry out the project, prepared the detailed plan and designed the residential area, whose buildings form an intact whole on the upper slope on the south side of Korkalovaara. Built in the latter half of the 1950s and the early 1960s, the residential area consists of two four-storey apartment blocks and three two-storey row house buildings. At the turn of the 1990s, a single-storey row house was built in the southern part of the area, along Evakkotie. The apartment blocks delimit the park area that opens to the south and shelter the park-like courtyard area. The row houses branch out from the apartment block area in a fan-like pattern. All apartments were designed on the basis of efficient floor plans, with consideration of the terrain and climatic conditions. The shopping centre and heating plant are located along the road planned as a collector road, and the shop premises open onto a small square. The external walls of the buildings, which are varied in appearance, are white-painted brick. The green and park areas surrounding the residential area are based on the plans of landscape architect Jussi Jännes.

The Evakkotie row house area, built by the Finnish Defence Forces, was designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen and forms a compact and unified whole at the lower part of the southern slope of Korkalovaara. The dense row house area built in the 1960s on Evakkotie is located south-west of the residential area designed by Aalto. The area's 12 row houses and their 126 apartments are arranged on the slope in a stepped fashion so that they open to the south, while the parts of the buildings facing the upper slope are sheltered from northern winds by their low wall surfaces and small window openings. The buildings of the residential area are white-painted brick on their facades, as are the buildings of As Oy Korkalorinne.

History

The population of Rovaniemi market town grew rapidly after the war, thanks to migration and economic development. As a result of the war's destruction and the rapid growth, the market town still suffered from a housing shortage in the mid-1950s.

Market town manager Lauri Kaijalainen saw the housing shortage as one possible solution, modelled on Tapiola in Espoo, and promoted residential development on a regional basis in the market town, following the example of Tapiola built by the Asuntosäätiö.

Korkalovaara was considered a suitable joint area for the Asuntosäätiö and the market town. In Aalto's Poronsarvikaava it had been designated as an area of hexagonal small-house plots. In the 1948 plan amendment the plots had been changed to quadrilateral ones. In 1956 the Asuntosäätiö assigned Alvar Aalto the task of designing the residential area. Aalto's office first prepared a plan comprising three separate residential areas, which would be connected to one another by a collector street. Of this extensive plan, only the Korkalorinne area was built. According to the agreement, the Asuntosäätiö would build a garden-city-style residential area consisting of apartment blocks, terraced houses and chain houses designed by Alvar Aalto. The market town undertook to plan and build the roads and municipal technical infrastructure. The housing was financed with ara loans.

On the basis of Aalto's plan, a new town plan was drawn up, which was confirmed in October 1958. The implementation of Aalto's designs began in the summer of 1958 on Sompiontie, along which the Rakovalkea apartment block, the Korkalo terraced house, a heating centre and a shopping centre were built during the following year.

In the second phase, the Lapinjänkä terraced house and the Poroelo apartment block were built. The buildings on Tanhuantie and Poroelontie were completed by the summer of 1960. The sauna originally intended as a link between the Rakovalkea and Poroelo apartment blocks was replaced by a wooden bicycle and sports equipment shelter. The Karpalo terraced house on Keskitie was completed in 1961. The garages in the area were built by the housing company in the early 1960s and were roughly based on Aalto's draft drawing.

Not all of the buildings included in the original plan for Korkalorinne were built, due to financing problems and weak demand. Left unbuilt were the extension of the heating centre, the terraced houses for three families in the southern part, and a kindergarten. A single-storey terraced house for five families in the southern part of the area was built in 1989 according to new plans. The suburbs envisaged alongside Korkalonrinne, following the same spacious principle, were never built. Later, suburbs built using precast concrete element technology were constructed at Korkalovaara.

The construction of the Evakkotie terraced houses is connected with the growing military importance of the Northern Calotte in the early 1950s. As the world political situation tightened, the Finnish Defence Forces became concerned about the military vacuum in Lapland. To remedy this, garrisons were established at Sodankylä and in Rovaniemi rural municipality in the 1960s, and the Lapin lennosto air wing was added in the 1970s. Among other things, the Evakkotie terraced houses were built for Defence Forces personnel. The plans were drawn up by the architectural office Timo ja Tuomo Suomalainen in 1963-1966. Construction was carried out by the Puolustusministeriön rakennustyö, and the area was completed in 1970.