Karkkila’s old foundry: from disrepair to a vibrant cultural and leisure hotspot
There’s a hotel in the factory owner’s house, a sauna in an enamel oven, rock stars perform in a machine shop hall, and a movie theater sits at the base of a smokestack. “For a moment, during the recession of the 1990s, this town was completely dead, but now there’s a whole new buzz here,” says film director Aki Kaurismäki.
Iron has been cast in the city of Karkkila in Finland for a couple of hundred years. In the past, the entire city lived and breathed in step with the Högfors foundry. At its peak, the factory employed nearly 1,500 people. These days, industrial production continues at the Componenta foundry with just under 300 workers, and you can hear its hum while strolling along the river that flows through the city.
Along the water’s edge, several old red-brick factory buildings stand, their production long since relocated. In recent years, this site has been revitalized for new purposes, and in just a couple of years, it has blossomed into a new center for Karkkila.
The most recent newcomer is cultural center Ala-Emali, once home to a cast-iron enameling facility. It was here that both bathtubs and Högfors’s famous cast iron cookware were coated, including Finnish designer Antti Nurmesniemi’s signature pots and pans.
No longer does smoke billow from Ala-Emali’s smokestack. It now stretches through a roomy lobby area, framed by the village restaurant Kanto, the Laika movie theater, and its La Moderna wine bar, whose neon sign film buffs may recognize from Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre film.
Fueling this change is local entrepreneur, who was named Karkkila’s person of the year in 2021, Pertti Toikka. Together with his wife Eija and their two adult daughters, Niina Salonen and Tea Toikka, the family business Toikkakiinteistöt has already renovated numerous properties. Around here, Toikka is known for making things happen. You’ll most often find him bustling around a construction site in his coveralls.
How did you become the owner and renovator of these factory-area properties?
“I started investing in real estate after selling my roofing installation company around the turn of the 2000s. We bought small apartment houses and row houses in Karkkila, which we renovated, rented out, and sometimes sold onward. Today, we have about 50 rental apartments,” Toikka explains.
The building was a sad sight. The roof had collapsed, rainwater was pouring in, and pigeons had made their nests everywhere. The enameling facility’s heavy-duty machinery was still in place.
The business took a new turn when the Toikka family bought a hotel in 2018, which until then had been used exclusively for the foundry’s corporate guests. He wanted to open the factory owner’s mansion, also known as the Bremer House, and the adjacent club building to a wider public.
“Karkkila lacked a hotel, which held back tourism development. But Componenta wouldn’t sell only the factory owner’s house; we also had to buy three old industrial buildings plus several smaller structures,” recalls Toikka.
The Factory Hotel opened in 2018. For a few months, the Toikka family ran it themselves, but since 2019, the 25-room hotel and 120-seat restaurant have been operated by skilled professionals, first by Leena Hasselman and Lasse Lindström, who had previously run a Finnish restaurant in Paris, and since summer 2023 by the entrepreneur duo Minna and Vesa Kokkonen.
In Karkkila, you can stay either in the factory owner’s house or in the other buildings around it, and dine under towering oaks in the club building—once reserved only for factory management. Nearby, scenic rapids merge with a rugged factory milieu.
After they opened the hotel and renovated the nearby laundry building, the Toikka family spent a year studying the factory properties they had acquired. In 2020, they began refurbishing Ala-Emali.
By then, the building was a sad sight. The roof had collapsed, rainwater was pouring in, and pigeons had made their nests everywhere. The enameling facility’s heavy-duty machinery was still in place, with windows all boarded up.
“Dad knew that if we wanted to save the place, we first had to fix the roof. After that, we moved on to renovating indoors. We always respect what’s old and preserve as much of it as possible,” says Niina Salonen.
Wandering the corridors, you’ll notice how the building’s industrial feel and layers of foundry history have been beautifully kept. Snaking pipes cross ceilings and walls, rough brick surfaces peek through in spots, patina-worn doors divide spaces, and the old cast-iron staircases still stand strong.
When the Toikka family finally began renovating the old foundry, the halls were practically empty, as only about a quarter of the space was in use.
Securing appealing tenants right away was crucial: a restaurant, a movie theater, and the vintage shop Vintamo. Simply renovating the buildings isn’t enough if you want real life to return to old industrial settings. Karkkila’s very first cinema was founded by film director Aki Kaurismäki, who lives in the area, and writer Mika Lätti.
“The movie theater came together quickly since Aki moves fast. We met a few times to check if the space would fit a theater. After that, it was a done deal,” says Toikka.
Turning the bare interior into a 100-seat movie theater took five months.
“There were five of us working hard on it. We really powered through,” Kaurismäki says.
Alongside it, the theater also gained a wine bar, a private lounge, and a so-called speakeasy, which opens to the public whenever the theater hosts concerts.
The speakeasy is somewhat like a Kaurismäki museum, filled with props from his films, including the bar counter from The Other Side of Hope.
“I wanted the most old-fashioned movie theater possible.”Aki Kaurismäki
You can definitely see Kaurismäki’s hand in Kino Laika and its bar, with the same nostalgic echoes found in his films.
“I wanted the most old-fashioned movie theater possible. A big detail is the moving curtains that open at the start of a film—they might be unique in Finland. At first, I thought we’d only sell two kinds of candy at the box office, Sisu pastilles and Fazerina bars, just like in the ‘60s, but we dropped that after deciding on a wine bar.”
After the first tenants arrived, nearly every space has been occupied, spurred on by positive word of mouth.
“In recent years, many cultural professionals, especially those in film, have moved to Karkkila. That’s in turn brought more entrepreneurs and businesses. Our closeness to the capital region, evolving cultural services, and these rugged surroundings all appeal. We get many inquiries, but right now only one empty office remains,” notes Salonen.
New businesses keep popping up in Ala-Emali, perfectly complementing older establishments and fresh arrivals alike.
Under one roof, you’ll find vintage and design shops, a yoga studio, an art education space, organic cosmetics companies, and a cozy, reservation-only sauna called Uunisauna ('oven sauna'), set in the old enamel oven, plus an adjacent event space for around 100 guests.
“The businesses host plenty of shared events. There’s a tight-knit spirit here,” Salonen says.
Market events and the 1,500-capacity machine shop hall also draw visitors. Rock concerts, fairs, and sales events take place there, and it has even served as a location for movies, music videos, and commercials.
Some factory buildings on the grounds remain unused, awaiting new life, but within just a few years, the area has gained a wealth of fresh energy.
The intriguing setting alone draws people in, but the movies, good food, sauna, shops, bars, and other amenities truly complete the experience.
“For a while, during the big recession of the 1990s, the town was totally dead, but now it’s buzzing again,” says Aki Kaurismäki.
