Map of the Sunila area.

The buildings are numbered below.

The construction of the area

The new pulp mill and residential area were built on nearly untouched land. Roads, railroad, bridges, electric lines and more had to be built. At its peak, the workforce at the construction site was 1750 men. The pulp mill was built on the island of Pyötinen, where the shore was steep and therefore a good place for a port. The construction began in June 1936 and in May 1938 the first pulp bale was produced.

The residential area was built on the mainland. In the first stage of the construction, the manager’s residence Kantola, the engineers’ rowhouse Rantala, the foremens’ rowhouse Mäkelä, the workers’ flats Mäntylä and Honkala and the necessary maintenance buildings were completed. The southern part of the area, where these buildings were located, became known as Valliniemi.

The second stage of the construction of the residential area was a collaborative effort by the Sunila, A. Ahlström and Kymi companies. The three companies founded EKA, the Etelä-Kymi housing company, where each party got housing for their workers.

At the same time the Puistola residential area was constructed. 12 standardized detached houses made by the A. Ahlström housing factory in Varkaus were built.

The Sunila sawmill buildings were altered for the use of the new pulp mill community according to the plans of Aino and Alvar Aalto. The old buildings were modified to accommodate clubs for the upper and middle management, a kindergarten and a library. The sawmill volunteer fire department (VPK) building was transformed into a communal space for the workers and became known as “Pirtti”.

After the war, the apartment buildings Kuusela (1947), Juurela and Runkola (1952-1954) were built.

Living in Sunila

The Inhabitants of Sunila lived in the old wooden housing barracks of the sawmill and the new apartment buildings designed by Alvar Aalto. A working family’s living career often started in the old barracks, where water was carried in from the well and the toilet was in a separate shack outside. After queuing you could move into an apartment in the new area. The transition has been compared to entering heaven. When you think about the large windows and light reflecting off the white walls, the comparison becomes apparent.

The vast majority of the apartments in the residential area designed by Aalto were 30-35m² single-room apartments and 45m² two-room apartments. The amenities in the apartments were unheard of at the time and there was plenty of room. The two- room flats could house even a family of six. The foremen’s row house Mäkelä had 85m² apartments and the engineers’ row house Rantala had apartments ranging from 180m² to 280m². The mill manager’s house Kantola is 450m² and it was also used as a reception hall. A traditional hierarchy ruled in Sunila accompanied by progressiveness and modern design philosophy. There were three types of workers’ apartment buildings:

1. Mäkelä and Honkala built in 1937

2. Harjula, Kivelä and Kontio built in 1938-39

3. Terraced houses Karhu and Päivölä also built in 1938-39

Kuusela (1947), Juurela and Runkola (1952-54) that were built after the war differ from the previous buildings when it comes to the architecture, apartment types and social status. They weren’t designed for a specific demographic, instead they had apartments of all sizes ranging from 18m² single-room apartments to 120m² four-room apartments.

Sunila! Outstanding functionalist architecture

Sunila, the grand project by Alvar Aalto, was built in the years 1936-1954 and it includes not only the pulp mill built on the island of Pyötinen, but also the spacious residential area designed for the officials and the workers. Aalto’s unique architecture was international and developed in interaction with modern influences of the time. Aalto embraced ideas from the design principles of the functionalism era, and then softened and enriched them with his own personal vision.

Sunila at present

The pulp mill community worked as a coherent entity. The company gave work, let the apartments and offered many services for everyday needs and spare time. As times changed, the bond between the factory and the residential area was weakened. Nowadays Sunila is like any other residential area, but the history still lives in the architecture and people’s minds.

Whispers of history

The birth of the pulp mill

In 1871–76, nine steam ­powered sawmills were established at the estuary of the River Kymi, in the present day town of Kotka. The Sunila sawmill began production in 1875, north of the present pulp mill, but ceased its operations in 1928 when seven major companies in the wood processing industry bought the sawmill and its grounds. The area was then left to wait out the economic depression at the turn of the decade. With the economic upswing underway, the founder companies – Ahlström, Enso­ Gutzeit, Kymi, Tampella and Yhtyneet Paperitehtaat – decided in June 1936 to build a sulphate pulp mill in Sunila, the annual production capacity of which would be 80,000 tons.

The planning stage

The planning stages and construction, including excavating the rocky building site on the island of Pyötinen, completing the road and railway connections as well as the harbour jetty, took only two years. At its height there was a site workforce of 1750. The production of the first pulp bale was celebrated on 16th May 1938. The war that began the following year did not interrupt operations, but the production goals were not achieved until 1951.

Harry Gullichsen, the managing director of the Ahlström company and the chairman of the board of directors of the Sunila company, was a personal friend of architect Alvar Aalto, and it was Gullichsen who put forward Aalto as the architect of the project. Aalto and Gullichsen had in common modern ideas about art, architecture and social progress. Lauri Kanto, the technical director of the nearby Halla pulp mill, was brought in as supervisor for the project, and Aulis Kairamo as the technical director. These four men all worked together in creating a technically, architecturally and socially high standard production plant and community.

The view of Sunila from the sea became the symbol of the Finnish wood processing industry. In the housing area Aalto had free reign to implement his idea about the Finnish interpretation of international modernism. Finland’s first ‘forest town’ was born, and it paved the way for the planning of post­war housing areas in Finland.

The Sunila pulp mill community

From 1938 to the 1960s Sunila was a traditional industrial community led by the works manager, and yet it was also a modern welfare community. The company looked after its workforce in a variety of ways, including health care, sports, children’s daycare and common Christmas and Mother’s Day festivities. Sportsmen from Sunila gained renown; the Sunila rowing team who represented Finland at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, winning the bronze medal.

Towards the present day

As in other similar areas, social changes forced the factory and the residential areas to become separated. The housing originally owned by the Sunila, Halla and Karhula factories today form independent housing companies. Small-scale enterprises operate in the maintenance and commercial buildings of the area. Sunila has become a suburb of Kotka and is looking for a new identity.

In 1997 a neighbourhood association was established in the area, offering a variety of services particularly for the elderly. Pro Sunila, founded in 2000, strives, in cooperation with the authorities and expert organisations, to promote the preservation, renovation and development of the area to correspond with present day needs.

The residential buildings have been repaired and modernised since 2000 to correspond with present day requirements. In the Detailed Plan the area is marked as a protected area due to its architectural and cultural historical importance. The renewal of the Detailed Plan, as well as repair guidelines and environmental planning, aim for increasingly specific protection of the landscape and architectural values.

Detailed plan / The town plan?

Extensive areas of lawn, open rock faces and tall pine trees dominate the restful Sunila landscape. The Detailed Plan is based on the free composition of the buildings within the terrain. Particularly characteristic is the fan ­shaped placement of the buildings, the slight variations and shifts in direction, which allow for uninhibited views from the flats into nature.

The uniformity and vibrancy of the area relies on the delicate variation within a framework determined by the choice of materials and the simple principles of massing. The main material of the facades is lightly rendered and white­washed brick or concrete block. In contrast to this, wood has been used, for instance, in the solid parts of the strip windows and the balcony rails. Local emphasis is given through the use of split red granite, and red and yellow brick.

Text written by Sirkka Soukka and Rurik Wasastjerna