Aalto’s office drew up several designs for internal doors. Detail drawings show a
round-shaped threshold rising from the floor, metal plate covered frames and a variety
of treatments on wood door panels. Seven door plans were marked as standards.^883
The patient room doors were wooden flush panel doors, with the corridor-facing panel
varnished and the room-facing one painted.^884 The metal plate covered doorframe was
manufactured by Crichton-Vulcan,^885 and the door leaves were ordered from Wilhelm
Schaumans Fanerfabrik factory.^886 The piece of metal painted in different colours on
either side strung on a piece of wire was hanging on the corridor-facing side of the
patient rooms. This was used by the patients to communicate whether they were in their
room or not. The rooms had no name plates. It is not known to whom this completely
manual mechanism can be attributed. The handles in the patient room doors were
specially made and designed by the architect.^887 They were supplied by Turku-based
Kaune Takomo (Kaune Artistic Blacksmithing), which advertised them as their own
standard-type handle.^888
Architects sketched several drawings studying the joint of the S-shaped floor and
the wall. The Building Committee decided that the skirting board should be made of
rubber.^889 In a photograph from the Aalto archives, the skirting boards are coved but
wooden.^890 The patient room floor was clad with linoleum, an important detail for
Aalto. He wanted to ensure that the floor material would be linoleum and therefore
bring forward the material purchase to autumn 1931.^891 The Building Committee
decided to purchase 2.2 millimetre thich linoleum for the floor covering in December
1931892 , well in time before the materials for other floors were decided on.^893 One of
the patient room walls was covered with soft Enso pulp-paper wallpaper to even out
the internal acoustics of the room. The advertisement of Enso-Gutzeit Ltd illustrated
the structure of the acoustic wall panel: a fibreboard attached to the wall, clad with thick
Enso wallpaper.^894 This advertisement was created at Aalto’s office and illustrated with
photographs taken by Aino Marsio-Aalto.
883 Drawings Nos. 50-159, 50-160, 50-161, 50-162, 50-163, 50-166 and 50-390. AAM.
884 Research on colour layers, card No. 6. Heikinheimo et al., Ark-byroo architects, 2000.
885 Building Committee May 20, 1931, Section 3. PSA.
886 Building Committee November 4, 1931, Section 3. PSA.
887 Drawing No. 50-956 presents a handle, which is more simple than the one that was manufactured.
888 An advertisement of the Kaune company. Sukkinen, M. et al. eds. 1933, p. 70.
889 Building Committee March 21, 1932, Section 6. PSA.
890 Exhibition plate No. 50-400. AAM.
891 Aalto proposed to the Building Committee that the linoleum be ordered in good time because the price might
increase as the exchange rate of foreign currencies could rise. However, the Committee did not press for a desi-
cion because in its view it was not possible to say how the exchange rates would develop. Building Committee
November 4, 1931, Section 2. PSA.
892 Building Committee December 23, 1931, Section 2. PSA.
893 In March 1932 the Building Committee decided that coloured linoleum of 3.5 millimetres thickness would be used
in the corridors. In toilets and other spaces, rubber sheets of the thickness of 3 millimetres would be used. The
rubber flooring material was ordered from Nokia and the linoleum from Oy Wiklund Ab, located in Turku. Building
Committee March 5, 1932, Section 2. PSA.
894 An advertisement of Enso Gutzeit Ltd. Sukkinen, M. et al. eds. 1933, p. 65.