Prefabricated houses in Finland and the history of export
Prefabrication has a long history of being used in reconstruction contexts or as temporary shelters, either in colonial settings or after disasters. Both Poland and Israel had bought Finnish prefabricated houses already in the inter-war decades. When the large-scale need for reconstruction after the Second World War came, the trade in houses continued. The main difference during the post-war decades was that several large Finnish sales organizations coordinated the trade. The trade was also given an important role within the field of cultural diplomacy, since providing housing was seen as a great way to show benevolence and establish future connections in between governments.
During the Second World War, the Finnish industry for prefabricated housing grew rapidly. During the war, two main sales organizations were founded, Puutalo Oy in 1940 and Myyntiyhdistys Puurakenne in 1944. These organizations were the main producers, with Puutalo oy as the largest, and Myyntiyhdistys Puurakenne the second largest. In addition, smaller organizations or independent companies produced wooden houses for export, as Pelkkatalojen myyntiyhdistys.
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Initially, the production supported the needs for barracks and military structures, but rapidly turned towards housing production. As a part of the peace treaty, Finland was to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviet Union. One part of the payments was made in prefabricated wooden houses, which contributed to the industry’s rapid organization and development. In 1948, the last war reparation houses were sent to the Soviet Union, and the Finnish producers were able to focus even more on international deals.
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Due to the political situation, where the Soviet Union monitored the Finnish initiatives in foreign politics, Finland had to find ways to operate that would not cause disagreements with the Soviet government. During the post-war decades, cultural diplomacy became an important means for Finland to operate internationally. Here, the export trade in prefabricated houses was used as a channel for establishing international contacts.
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The Finnish companies were eager participants in negotiating international trade deals, at times collaborating while at other times rivaling each other. A typical situation was that building types were developed in collaboration between the companies and the ordering nation, resulting in the same building type being featured in several companies’ drawings but with different names.
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The prefabrication industry was also an important part of the Finnish domestic post-war reconstruction. After the war, 400 000 Karelians needed to be re-homed after evacuating the areas that were lost to the Soviet Union in the peace treaty. The main solution for the housing crisis was building one’s house based on type plans, but the prefabrication industry provided much-needed workplaces for the men returning from the war. In the 1940s, around 95 % of the prefabricated houses were exported, while the rest were available on the domestic market. It was not until the late 1960s, when the domestic market for prefabricated housing started to grow rapidly.
Today, most detached family homes in Finland are built through prefabrication.
Poland
The two case countries Poland and Israel both faced housing crises in the post war decades. Here, the Finnish houses became a solution to quickly provide housing for large quantities of people in very different circumstances. In Poland, the Finnish houses came either as gifts via the Soviet Union, which passed on houses gained within the program of war-reparations or were bought directly from the Finnish officials in an exchange for coal. The buildings were mainly high-quality houses, placed near urban or industrial areas, forming separate neighbourhoods surrounded by gardens.
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Later, the buildings and surroundings were adapted to local tastes such as in the Jazdów Settlement in Warsaw. Today, the Jazdów Settlement has after decades of threats of demolition become labelled a cultural heritage due to local activism and an example of reuse of those houses and ne model of public spaces co-management in a bottom-up way.
Israel
In 1948, the newly established state of Israel faced a severe housing crisis due to the mass migration of Jewish refugees, including Holocaust survivors from Europe and others fleeing the Middle East. These immigrants arrived with minimal possessions and required immediate housing. Recognizing this need, the Finnish government and housing producers offered Israel temporary housing solutions, leading to a large-scale diplomatic and economic operation that made Israel one of the largest importers of Finnish prefabricated houses at that time.
Companies such as Puutalo Oy and Puurakenne exported thousands of prefabricated houses and other public buildings to Israel. These exports were facilitated through diplomatic relations and were paid for with citrus fruits and other commodities. To reduce costs, Israeli authorities requested simpler models, sometimes without features like floors and roofs, which affected the quality.
The houses were primarily sent to temporary transition camps (Ma’abarot) and socialist agricultural settlements (Kibbutzim and Moshavim). While most were eventually demolished, some prefabricated houses have survived, highlighting their cultural heritage and the stories of the immigrants who lived in them.
