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Facade

As an interesting feature, Aalto designed a tower for woodchips at the nothern end of the sawmill. The tower was covered with wavy paneling. The waved woodpaneling was used in Aalto’s designs already in the Lapua forrest pavilion (1938) and in pavilion in New York exhibition (1939). The roof of the tower was also remarkable in it’s lively form.

Activity

The sawmill was equipped with four frame saws, as well as one frame saw for sawing material for the blockboard factory. The machinery at the sawmill was ultra-modern at the time it was started. The upper floor of the mill housed the machinery for the overhead cableway which transported the waste product straight to the boiler room of the works’ steam generating plant.

Building the Sawmill

Aalto used the standing brick walls of the burned sawmill as the basis for his plan. The ornamentation that dominated the exterior walls of the sawmill designed by Lindahl gave way to clean brick surfaces in Aalto’s plan. The sawmill attracted even international interest, but was dismantled in 1975, after a new sawmill was completed on the other side of Ahlströminkatu.

The pool

The timber was floated up to the power canal into the sawmill’s log pond, where it was sorted and debarked. Debarking machine named Mira was own production of Varkaus factories. From the sawmill’s log pond, the lumber rose inside the sawmill up to the conveyors.