Worker's residential areas

Large-scale industry began in the Imatra area in the 1890s, when Tornator Oy established a wire reel, wood grinding and paper factory on the shore of Tainionkoski. In the 1930s, many new industrial facilities were built in the Imatra area, such as a steel factory, a copper factory and a power plant. Especially during these periods, a lot of new residents moved to the town.

Ritikanranta is the oldest of Imatra's working life areas. Tornator Oy, which established a factory in Tainionkoski, built residential barracks for its foremen and professional workers in Ritikanranta after 1895. Over the course of a few years, a dozen multi-family residential buildings and a common economic building were built in the area. The residential buildings were log-framed and two-story. A typical apartment had a kitchen and a room or just one so-called living room When the Tainionkoski factories stopped operating in the 1960s, the Ritikanranta barracks were demolished except for one. The remaining one serves as the Industrial Workers' Housing Museum, which is open in the summer.

Tornator Oy acquired the Niskalamme area in 1905–1906. A grid pattern was planned for the area and many large multi-family residential barracks, smaller two- and four-family houses and single-family detached houses were built. In addition, the workers themselves built cottages on rented plots. The construction of Niskalammi continued until the 1940s. Later, between the 1950s and 1974, at least 19 buildings in the area were demolished, including the largest. In the 1980s, the area's housing stock was inventoried and the area received a new site plan. In the summer of 1986, a housing fair was organized in the renovated residential area of ​​Niskalammi.

Tornator Oy founded the Haraka sawmill around 1924. Apartments were built for the sawmill workers along the roads leading towards Virasoja and Vuoksenniska. Along Virasoja road there were a dozen barrack-type buildings, near Vuoksenniska road several buildings of different sizes, so-called In the cattle yard area. In addition, a multi-family residential house was located near the shore of Saimaa. The foremen and employees of the sawmill lived in smaller buildings along the road leading to Tainionkoski. Later, in the early 1950s, three three-story apartment buildings were completed for the foremen on the south side of the sawmill area. The workers' residential buildings have since been demolished.

Vuoksi's first commercial power plant, the Linnankoski wooden power plant, was in operation from 1900–1901 and 1915–1928. Its workers lived in wooden barracks in Linnankoski and Pässinniemi, which later also housed the builders of the Imatrankoski power plant. The barracks were dismantled in Linnankoski in 1938 and in Pässiniemi in 1964.

The construction of the Imatrankoski Power Plant and its adjacent residential area began in 1922. The apartments intended for the operating personnel were completed in 1923, the power plant in 1928. The residential area comprises four three-family terraced houses, three engineers' apartments and one manager's apartment. They were designed by master builder Emil Ekegren. Except for the director's apartment, these neo-classical houses are single-story, plastered and yellow. The placement of the area and the surrounding park reflect the classical ideals of symmetry and balance. The area was completed in the 1930s with a two-story gray plastered four-family house and in the 1950s with 13 typical semi-detached houses designed by Arkitehtoimisto Aarne Ervi.

The residential areas for the employees of Oy Vuoksenniska Ab's ironworks were built in the village of Teppanala, on both sides of Ensontie. Construction began in 1935 and continued into the 1950s. Residential buildings were placed on the east side of the road for white-collar workers and on the west side for workers. The civil servants' residential buildings were small houses and apartment buildings, workers' apartment buildings and two-story terraced houses, which continued the traditions of workers' barracks housing into the 1990s. Located between Ensontie and Teppanala National School, the so-called The area of ​​clay houses was built in the 1940s and consisted of 13 two-family gabled, plastered houses. From the 1940s and 1950s, workers were allowed to build detached houses on the Rajapatsa, Rautala lots.

The Kupari residential area was created when Outokumpu Oy built houses for its employees in 1935–1944. The architect was W. Palmqvist. The five four-family houses located along Kuparitie are made of brick, plastered and equipped with a rare beamed roof. There are 28 low wooden two-family semi-detached houses. They have hipped roofs and wooden boards. Stylistically, brick houses have re-classical features, wooden houses mostly represent mixed functionalism. The area of ​​wooden houses with its grid pattern is very park-like.

The residential areas built by Enso-Gutzeit Oy for its employees in Kaukopää are called Lättälä, Pomola and Insinööriniemi. They were designed by the architect Väinö Vähäkallio in the spirit of functionalism in 1934–1936. Lättälä and Pomola were built in the so-called for regular workers, Engineer title for white-collar workers. Lättälä's 20 semi-detached houses are located around the monumental park axis as an open entity. The houses are white and have hipped roofs. The apartments are 43m2 in size and include a living room, a bedroom and a small kitchen. In addition, there are two larger, two-story residential buildings in the area. Pomola's nine two-story houses are located in an arc around a small hill. Insinööreniemi's four houses are two-story, spacious, single-family residential houses. Kaukopää's factory and residential areas together form a modern entity that blends into the landscape.

Enso-Gutzeit Oy also supported self-initiated construction by its employees. The company e.g. offered the builders the type house drawings he ordered from the architects and helped with loan arrangements and material procurement. Several significant residential areas were born, for example Kurkvuori, with approximately 40 detached houses built according to Alvar Aalto's C-type between 1950 and 1955.