Chapter 1 | Introductionthem. This was particularly challenging in Finland, which was, at the time, highly agri-
cultural as a society and struggling under the great economic depression.
For the purpose of this dissertation, I understand symbolic expression in architec-
ture as a system with its own logic and, in contrast, construction as a system forming
the framework within which the practical problems of building are resolved. According
to the British architect and scholar Alan Colquhoun, symbolic representation and
empirical building are parallel systems. Symbolic representation is based on facts, while
architecture is bound to a given social, technological or economic situation in time.^45
In my opinion, a case study enables the appropriate level of accuracy in studying the
interaction between the architect’s world of ideas and other builders. The locality of
architecture, in other words, the encounter of an international ideology and a local
reality as illustrated by one project, is at the core of the present study. Aalto held a
central role in Paimio Sanatorium project from the very beginning, which allowed him
to influence the entire scope of design solutions.
The objective of this research was to examine how the relationship between archi-
tecture and technology was resolved locally in Paimio Sanatorium. When a building
is constructed, ideas gain a material manifestation and the architect learns from the
process of building through interaction with other stakeholders. I have elaborated
on the ideas of Modernist architects and the role of the architect in the execution
phase, working together with a number of different stakeholders. My observations have
focused on subsystems derived from the ideological points of departure or paradigms
of the era, including the reinforced concrete frame, windows and the environment for
human activities within the frame, more precisely in the patient room. I have studied
the significance of the many discourses that the architect engaged in as part of the
design process of the building as well as its construction, and analysed Alvar Aalto’s
concept of technology.
45 Colquhoun 1962, p. 508.