Kirurginen sairaala (Kirurgiska sjukhuset)

English translation (from the Finnish)

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Description

The Kirurginen sairaala, dating from 1888, is the first specialist hospital of its kind in Finland. The architectural solution, which uses pavilions, reflects the international development of hospital building at the end of the 19th century.

Despite later extensions, additions and raisings, the modern features of the institution from the time of its construction still dominate. In the symmetrical basic layout, these include the grouping of the treatment rooms etc. in their own central main wing along the street. Transverse patient pavilions with their large dormitory wards, and with wooden balcony sections facing south and north, connect to the main wing via long connecting corridors. The complex's group of buildings also includes utility and ancillary buildings, as well as a wooden building that originally served as an isolation ward. The iron fence around the institution's plot is partly original.

The late 19th-century hospital complex, situated on the western slope of Tähtitorninmäki along Kasarmikatu, remains in hospital use. It has undergone later changes, most recently in the 1990s, and it has been maintained as a university-level teaching hospital.

History

The international architectural competition for a surgical hospital, announced by the Senate in 1877, did not produce a proposal that could be implemented. The final plan was prepared by architect F. A. Sjöström, based on the winning foreign proposals, and the work was completed by architect Helge Rancken. A separate international competition for the design of the heating and ventilation system was won by Otto Meyer of Hamburg.

The Kirurginen sairaala was completed in 1888. The institutional complex was altered in the 1930s and 1970s (new emergency station). Interiors were modernised in the 1980s and 1990s, among other things.