From the perspective of the execution of hospital designs, one of the two archives
of major importance was the archive of the hospital itself.^208 The minutes of the Build-
ing Committee and the Building Board were records of decision making during the
building process, most of which have been preserved for posterity. The hospital archive
also contained contracts, as well as the drawings and specifications by the engineers
and companies responsible for executing different parts of the building, including the
constructional drawings of Emil Henriksson. In both of these administrative bodies,
the Board and the Committee, Mr Ilmo Kalkas, acted as the secretary. Most of the
minutes were typed, and some were hand written. In each document there were several
sections, each dealing with one subject matter only. The style of the documents was
objective, the texts were short, and most often only the decisions were recorded. In the
minutes of the executive body, the Building Committee, the discussion of alternatives
and the grounds for decisions was mostly omitted. Exceptions were made in certain
cases such as the filling of the supervising doctor’s position^209 , and in the selection
process of the plumbing contractor, in which Aalto wanted his divergent opinion to
be recorded in the minutes^210. A few decisions were discussed at length over several
meetings. In the minutes of the Building Committee, there were often appendices, such
as contractors’ and suppliers’ tenders. In the minutes of the Building Board, the flow of
decision making and the decisions themselves were described in more detail.
Aalto’s drawings, photographs from the construction period and of the finished build-
ing, as well as his correspondence, are kept in the Alvar Aalto Museum archive, which was
one of the two principal sources of information for this study. The archive also contains
certain other documents, such as engineers’ drawings and product catalogues, in addition
to those produced by the architects. The drawings and photographs and the letters from
the Aalto archive have been selected following an examination of the archive. The archi-
vists also made available reports on Aalto’s library database, and correspondence.
According to the classification system of the Alvar Aalto Museum, the architectural
drawings of Paimio Sanatorium belong to class 50 – hospitals, sanatoriums, rehabili-
tation centres – and there are nearly 600 items dated between 1929 and 1932.^211 The
Paimio drawings included sketches, the competition entry, the master plan, working
drawings, and details. Some of the drawings were designated as standards by the
architect.^212
208 Turku University Central Hospital’s Paimio Hospital archives (PSA), which were investigated in the Paimio hospital
building itself, have since been gradually incorporated into main archives in the 2010s.
209 Building Committee May 17, 1932. PSA.
210 Building Committee April 7, 1931. PSA.
211 According to the ledger of AAM the drawings related to Paimio Sanatorium, dated 1929–1932, belonged to class
50 and were numbered 24–35, 54–486, 636–766, 949–956, and 977–978. Besides these, some drawings, such
as Nos. 50-534, 50-555, and 50-1038 were copies or drawings classified under other projects or marked with
later timing.
212 These were designs of building components, such as doors, windows, light fittings, chairs, a metal tube sofa, a
handrail and furnishings of the patient room, including the wardrobe, a glass shelf, a washing bowl and a spitting
bowl. Standertskjöld 1992b, pp. 89–111.