1. 1 The Research Question
A
new architectural ideology was championed in the Europe of the interbellum
period by architects active in CIAM, who embraced in their professional dis-
course the rationalistic management techniques developed in the United States.
This discourse involved exhibitions and other events, articles, architectural publications,
unrealised designs and completed building projects. The central theoreticians of Modern-
ism, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, failed to acknowledge the culture-bound dimen-
sions of buildings.^46 Their avant-gardist discourse was a deliberate departure from the past.
Aalto drew influences from culturally radical Modernistic discourse and applied
new thoughts to his work. He felt that architecture should respond to the demands
of the age, that is, modernisation. Although Modernism ignored the significance of
local culture in building, buildings are inevitably tied both to time and place. The
main research question became: How did Aalto manage to reconcile international
ideology and local building culture in a country where the degree of industrialisation
in the building sector was relatively low? This research also analysed the ways in
which international discourse was translated into practical solutions in Paimio Sana-
torium project in 1928–1933.
The general question subsumed several related questions: How was technology
perceived in the architectural discourse of the time, by the main ideologists acting in
CIAM; and how did Aalto reflect these ideas and discuss technology in his writings
in 1928–1933? In this research, the architecture of Paimio Sanatorium and Aalto’s
texts were discussed in relation to the international discourse. It also examined how
Aalto used mass media to construct images.
Special attention was paid to finding out which building parts of the sanatorium
Aalto was most interested in. The number and quality of design documents drawn
revealed which parts of the project he chose to design himself and when he would
use prefabricated parts available on the market instead of a special design. Were these
building parts to which he paid special attention the same as those that were high-
lighted in the international discourse? And again, to which technological systems did
he pay only little attention?
The systems for heating, ventilation, sewage and electrical installations developed
rapidly in the early decades of the 20th century and the demand to incorporate them
into the architectural overall design became paramount. Who knew how to imple-
ment these new systems and what were the critical points to consider in developing
the solutions? Were the systems ready to be used as such or did the architect or other
project stakeholders contribute to their development? Furthermore, is it plausible to
understand them as being part of Aalto’s tectonic approach?
The subject matter of this research was to study in what ways specific architectural
solutions were developed in interaction between different players in the heterogeneous
46 Hartoonian 1997, p. 38.