ABSTRACT
Reconstruction in Lapland was an abrupt break from pre-war traditions and architectural principles. It imposed a layer of standardised construction on the built environment that was alien to how people in the province had built their homes and lived in them. Research in Finland on the architecture of the reconstruction period has largely focused on public buildings and resettlement of Karelian evacuees and soldiers returning from the front. Lapland has been essentially overlooked and little attention has been given to the role that type-planned houses played in the rebuilding of the province. The earliest post-war architectural research criticised the aims of type-planned houses and their status as dubious of reflections of modernism, with particularly harsh criticism levelled against the standardised houses that sprung up using government-issued plans. A mellowing of this position occurred starting in the 1990s. Neither research nor interviews examined how the planners felt about the aims of type-planned houses or how the shortages of materials affected the planning. The chapter examines these issues on the general level with reference to how society has valued the planners’ efforts over time and the views of an individual planner, architect Erkki Koiso-Kanttila.
