architect was comfortable with the nature his work as a process. Aalto used publicity
as his tool to clarify his thinking to himself, having to organise and verbalise his ideas.
The second description Aalto wrote about the architecture of Paimio Sanatorium
was published in a publication entitled Varsinais-Suomen tuberkuloosiparantola (The
Tuberculosis Sanatorium of Southwest Finland), which was published in 1933 by
the Building Board and edited by Secretary of the Building Board Ilmo Kalkas, the
former medical consultant, Medical Director of Paimio Sanatorium Markus Suk-
kinen and Alvar Aalto. This publication represented the official story of the project
and it was aimed at policy-makers including the State Medical Board, architects and
politicians. The book began with the Secretary and Ombudsman of the Finnish Asso-
ciation for the Prevention of Tuberculosis Severi Savonen’s article on the prevalence
of tuberculosis in Southwest Finland and Ilmo Kalkas’ long article on the execution
of the project. A shorter article on the architectural design was written by Alvar Aalto,
who was also in charge of the graphic design and photo editing of the publication. He
used Gustav Welin’s general views and Aino Marsio-Aalto’s detail photographs. This
publication included only a few diagrams. Aalto treated the copy and photographs as
separate elements throughout the publication. His own article ran across four spreads,
followed by the introductions to the floor plans of the ground floor and first floor in
the main wings. The photographic section began with large general views showing
the concrete frame with the same abstract photograph that Aalto had used in Byg-
gmästaren and the same images of the main building taken from the direction of
approach that he would later use in his project description in Arkkitehti (The Finnish
Architectural Journal). The captions indicated how the architect wanted viewers to
look at the images, for example: “Western elevation. In the foreground, balconies
of the nurses’ apartments.” This publication also included photographs of the wall
structure taken during the construction stage, with the caption stating that the wall
was insulated with brick and cork. Also included was a photograph of the armchair
type. The chair was not placed in any specific room, only rows of serially produced
bent wooden chairs were depicted. The image was not directly tied to the place. The
Varsinais-Suomen tuberkuloosiparantola publication included more photographs than
the article in Arkkitehti, including ones of the bakery, laundry, central heating pipes,
boiler room and a number of interior views taken by Aino Marsio-Aalto from an
angle that emphasised a personal experience.