physician participated in the work of the Committee from its second meeting onwards,
and civil engineer Kaarlo Albert Kilpi,^549 appointed as clerk of works, from the fourth
meeting onwards. The Chairman and secretary were the same as the Board’s. During
the construction years of the Tuberculosis Sanatorium of Southwest Finland, between
1930 and 1933, the Building Committee convened a total of 58 times. Aalto took an
active role in Board and Committee meetings, being present almost without exception,
and absent only when the matters at hand did not require his presence. The contrac-
tors did not participate in these meetings, but separate meetings were held with them.
Apparently, no site meetings, where all the parties involved would have been present,
were held^550. The organisation of the building project was strictly hierarchical.
The Committee’s remit was practical and it carried out a great deal of preparatory
work. The Building Board was not able to thoroughly familiarise itself with all decisions
related to the construction and even major decisions, such as making contracts on water,
sewage and heat piping and drawing up the budget, were entrusted to the Building
Committee. The Committee, in turn, delegated purchasing decisions, including those
on windows and doors, to Aalto. Aalto played an active role in many purchasing deci-
sions, including selecting the suppliers for the reinforced concrete frame and radiant
heaters, waste water treatment system and furniture.
The Building Board approved Aalto’s motion on the scheduling of the building
work partly on a cost-plus basis for the project organisation and partly as separate
subcontracts.^551 The work was supervised by the Clerk of Works’ Office of the Build-
ing Board.^552 In addition to clerk of works Kilpi, the site was supervised by another
master builder, Väinö Tähtinen.^553 The Building Committee was authorised to invite
contract tenders and to consider the extent of the first contract, i.e. the construction
of the main building skeleton, and the sequence in which subsequent contracts would
be performed.^554 The appendices of the minutes of the Building Board and Building
549 Kaarlo Albert Kilpi was born in Kaarina in 1885 and graduated from the Turku Industrial School building construction
department in 1908. He worked at Wanadislunden’s water tower construction site in Stockholm between 1912 and 1913
and studied at the Technical School of Sterlitz reinforced concrete engineering department in Germany between 1913
and 1914, graduating as a reinforced concrete engineer in 1922. Kilpi had made study trips to Germany, the Netherlands.
Southern Sweden, Denmark and Belgium and worked in the 1920s as Technical Director for Turun Sementti Valimo Oy,
owned by Juho Tapani, as a contractor in Turku together with master builder K.V. Lamminen between 1924 and 1929 and
as an extraordinary draughtsman for Turku harbour construction office from 1929 onwards. Tolonen 1930, pp. 213–214.
550 There was no site meeting minutes book in the archives of PSA.
551 Workers housing, pump room, garages and the mortuary would be implemented as cost-plus work by the proj-
ect organisation. The dwellings of state paid employees would be implemented either on cost plus basis by the
project organisation or as contract work. The actual construction work of the sanatorium as well as the water
mains and pumping station, general plumbing, general electrical work, elevators, doors, windows, painting,
kitchen machinery, technical medical equipment and fittings would be carried out as separate projects. Extra
work would be performed or implemented on a cost-plus basis by the project organisation. Building Board
March 15, 1930, Section 9. PSA.
552 Aalto 1933b, p. 86.
553 Born in 1902, Väinö Tähtinen also served as the General Foreman on the construction site of Standard. He had
graduated from the Turku Industrial School building construction department in 1924 and worked as the junior
master builder at the construction site for the Turun Suomalainen Säästöpankki new build between 1925 and
1926 and as a master builder for the constructions sites of Housing Company Lounas and Olavi new builds in
Turku between 1927 and 1928 and Maarian Sähkö Oy transformer station new build in 1929. Tolonen 1930, p. 586.
554 Building Board 3 May 1930, Section 3. PSA; Building Committee May 9, 1930, Section 1. PSA.