Lapin keskuspaikkojen linja-autoasemat

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 reconstruction after the Second World War of the bus stations at Kemi, Rovaniemi and Sodankylä, the central hubs of the Lapland bus transport network, is a significant transport-history project and phenomenon in our country. The network secured a new kind of mobility for the residents of the region and for goods, as part of the general social change, prosperity and extensive structural changes of the post-war decades. The building stock was modernised in 1959-1964.

The bus stations at Lapland's central places remain central parts of the urban structure, both functionally and in terms of the appearance of their built-up areas.

KEMI
The bus station in Kemi, completed in the early 1960s, is located in the vicinity of the town hall and the railway station. As a modern commercial and service facility, it is one of the earliest of its kind in the region.

The Kemi bus station is situated in a block representing high-quality construction of the post-war reconstruction period, which includes, among others, the Kemi työväentalo and three point blocks.

ROVANIEMI
The bus station building and station yard in Rovaniemi were realised as the result of an architectural competition, which gives the site particular significance in the history of Lapland's post-war reconstruction and in the building culture of Finland's bus transport. The bus station, designed by Architects Kaarlo Leppänen, Niilo Pulkka and Pekka Rajala (architectural office Aili ja Niilo Pulkka), was completed in 1959. The model of a property company gathering passenger services, as well as the aim of architectural quality, was later followed in the bus stations at Sodankylä and Kemijärvi, designed by the same architectural office. The guiding architectural idea of the station is the form of the fell, which describes the identity of the town, in the roof structures and the entrance canopy, a theme that Alvar Aalto applied a few years later in the Lappia-talo in Rovaniemi.

SODANKYLÄ
The bus station architecture is a strongly townscape-enriching factor in Sodankylä. The building, dating from 1962, was designed by Architects Kaarlo Leppänen, Niilo Pulkka and Pekka Rajala, as was the one in Rovaniemi.

History

After the Second World War, extending bus station services to war-ravaged Northern Finland was considered important. As the first solution, barrack stations opened in 1946 and temporary bus stations in 1949 were established in Lapland's central places: Kemi, Rovaniemi and Sodankylä.

Compared with the station buildings of earlier decades, the bus stations of the turn of the 1950s and 1960s were in many ways renewed in both appearance and spatial programme. The architects Kaarlo Leppänen, Niilo Pulkka and Pekka Rajala drew up the modern appearance and spatial programme for the bus stations of Rovaniemi and Sodankylä. The Rovaniemi station was the most extensive of these projects. It was realised on the basis of an architectural competition and was presented widely in the journal Arkkitehti in 1962.

The bus stations were built by a property company in which the market towns /municipalities and Matkahuolto Oy were shareholders.