(August Louhi Iron Bed Factory) for a slightly lower price. It was recorded in the
minutes that architect Aalto did not participate in the discussion on the matter.^840 Aalto
again excused himself as he was the designer of the piece in question and stood to
gain financially from the order. August Louhen Rautasänkytehdas served as a subcon-
tractor for Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas in the manufacturing process of Aalto’s
tubular-frame chairs in the early 1930s.^841
Standard No. 6, presenting the overall solution for the patient room, shows a chair
placed in front of the window. The chair was drawn as a metal-leg chair with a plywood
seat. There are two drawings amongst the drawings corresponding to this chair, one
illustrating the bending of the plywood seat^842 and the other a stackable, light-weight
chair seen from different angles and a detail.^843 In the design of the patient room, Aalto
had the opportunity to use the world’s first “soft wooden chair” that had been introduced
in 1929 at Turku’s 700th anniversary exhibition.^844 The advertisement of Huonekalu- ja
Rakennustyötehdas from 1934 presented the realised version of the patient room chair.
The fully timber-structured chair was assigned number 51 and was called the miniature
easy chair. It was recommended as suitable for meetings rooms, hospitals and other such
spaces, and it could be stacked. The frame of the chair in the advertisement was polished
birch and it had a hard seat.^845 Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas manufactured a total
of 300 such chairs for the patient rooms, that is, two for each twin room.^846 As far as
is known, no other offers were invited on the chairs except the one from Huonekalu-
ja Rakennustyötehdas. Seating formed a separate category in Aalto’s purchasing list,
purchased ready-made.
840 Building Board May 18, 1932, Section 4. PSA.
841 Mikonranta 2002.
842 Drawing No. 50-167. AAM.
843 Drawing No. 50-146. AAM.
844 Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas Oy, s.a., 1932?.
845 Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas Oy, published January 1, 1934.
846 An invoice of the Huonekalu- ja Rakennustyötehdas on the furniture for the Sanatorium of Southwest Finland,
March 15, (1933). KOR.