Chapter 3 | The Building of Paimio Sanatoriumprofiles and their vertical ventilation air flow. The window systems of the patient room
were a victory for him, in the rhetorical sense. The thick-framed windows were not a
victory for Aalto in the aesthetic sense, as he was keen to create an impression of a glass
wall that was perpetually open. On the other hand, by drawing the attention of his
target audience to the concept of the “health window”, Aalto succeeded in translating
their opinions into ones favouring his hybrid window.
Aalto’s design of a window reaching to the floor, which still existed at the competi-
tion stage, was reminiscent of André Lurçat’s tourist hotel in the Mediterranean (1927),
while, according to Heinonen, the plant windows at Paimio Sanatorium were inspired
by the refurbished Palmgarten restaurant in Frankfurt am Main (1929).^807 Aalto may
have paid a visit to the restaurant when attending the CIAM seminar in Frankfurt am
Main in August 1929. Plant windows first appeared in the floor plan for B wing, dated
May 24, 1930.^808 Aalto had used similar oblique display cabinets on the ground level
of Turun Sanomat building.
There had been attempts in Germany in the 1920s to incorporate skylights into
new architecture. In 1924, German architect Hugo Häring divided the functions of the
windows in a dwelling into three categories: lighting, ventilation and views.^809 Häring
favoured toplight over sidelight, as this made a room easier to furnish, the light fell from
the same direction as natural light and natural ventilation was easy to arrange through
a skylight.^810 For Le Corbusier, the strip window was at once a structural, aesthetic
and lighting-related solution.^811 In his view, the use of a reinforced concrete structure
automatically led to the use of strip window, which in turn provided four times as
much daylight as a vertical sash window. Le Corbusier considered the strip window to
be the foundation of the new architectural aesthetic. He also sketched diagrams for a
window-cleaning platform.^812
The skylights in the entrance lobby and operating theatre at Paimio Sanatorium
were fitted with milk glass sheets to provide diffuse light. In the entrance lobby,
electrical light fittings were situated alongside skylights affording daylight into the
space, while in the operating theatre the lights were fitted within the skylight cyl-
inder. According to Norvasuo, Aalto was influenced in his design for the operating
theatre window by a lecture given by a German doctor in 1928, subsequently cited by
Kjäldman.^813 It would seem more likely that it was Markelius’ view on the operating
theatre windows seen at the hospital section of the Stockholm Exhibition as well
as Garny’s advertisement of similar equipment that helped Aalto arrive at his own
window solution for Paimio.
807 Heinonen 1986, pp. 239–240.
808 Drawing No. 50-84. AAM.
809 Häring 1965 [1924], p. 14; Norvasuo 2009, p. 43.
810 Häring 1965 [1924], p. 14.
811 Le Corbusier, 1928b, pp. 96–106; Norvasuo 2009, p. 47.
812 Le Corbusier, 1928b, pp. 96–106.
813 Norvasuo 2009, p. 84.