Index Activities in Finland Pilot town Forssa in Finland

Pilot town Forssa in Finland

Forssa Town is situated 200 km northwest of Helsinki. The community grew around the textile industry during the 19th century. Axel Wilhelm Wahren, member of an old Swedish business and industry family, rented the water rights of the Kuhala mill from local farmers as 'eternal driving' in 1845. Some years later he built a new mill building and the first industrial buildings of the Forssa Cotton Mill Company.

The first apartments for labourers in the factory were built in 1848 along Wahren-street. Wahren's idea for a self-sufficient industry community, where farming and industry are integrated, came true in 1852 when he bought the Wiksberg manor house south of the spinning mill and built there a textile factory.

The industrial community enlarged fast. New residential buildings for the officials and labour, a school, a hospital, a hotel and a public park with greenhouses were built near industrial establishments. Behind the skilful planning and land use was the Swedish-born county architect of Turku, Theodor Chiewitz (1815-1862). The Company's own planning office operated in Forssa during 1872-1978, and designed for example the Kymi Oy factory, Tervakoski Paper Mill, Broadcloth Factory of Tampere and Tampella and mechanisation of several saws.

In 1923 Forssa became a township. Old Forssa (1840-1940) was clearly divided into three areas, each with a peculiar townscape, building ways and social structure. The village-like, tight but free-formed, area of Uusikylä between a spinning mill and textile factory was built without external control by the entrepreneurs and mill workers on small irregular, rented plots. The area of Kalliomäki (Ronttismäki) on the east side of the church has  a regular town plan. As a contrast to these residential areas stands the company's systematically and sophisticated planned and built residential and industrial areas which bear a comparison with such model communities as Saltier.

Forssa became a town in 1964. Its population at that time was about 11000 and by the beginning of the 1980s the figure had almost doubled. Still today, the present town has preserved its character of an industrial town.

The position of the cotton industry has been replaced by the food industry, building materials, graphics and IT industries. The problems of the town are the same as of most small towns in Europe: basic industry is very dependent on trade cycles and has no longer the need for labour to such an extent as before. The population of the area is decreasing slowly and the regeneration of the town area requires new measures and solutions.