Chapter 1 | IntroductionConstruction history, which is based on empirical inquiry, is quite young among
research traditions, but has gained a fairly established foothold in some European
countries, including Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. It is, however, lesser known
in the Nordic countries.^152 In Finland, this tradition is represented by a series of
studies on the construction of blocks of flats authored by architects Petri Neuvonen,
Erkki Mäkiö and Maarit Malinen and Panu Kaila’s works on construction meth-
ods.^153 Research carried out within this tradition has emphasised the contribution
of other parties besides architects, especially by engineers and constructors, as well
as the material essence of buildings and the skill of building. Therefore it is quite
natural to see the present research as part of the continuum in this tradition, and it
will potentially open up new perspectives into construction, which is simultaneously
a social and material process.
1.3.4 AALTO RESEARCH
In this section, previous research into Alvar Aalto’s oeuvre and the personality behind
his work is introduced. Furthermore, the significance of these interpretations for the
present work is highlighted. This section will also give an overview of monographs on
Finnish and Swedish architects who were part of Aalto’s sphere of influence.
Finnish art historian Raija-Liisa Heinonen’s licentiate dissertation Funktionalismin
läpimurto Suomessa (The Breakthrough of Functionalism in Finland)^154 has long served
as the founding for other readings of the architecture in that period.^155 In Heinonen’s
interpretation, Alvar Aalto’s Turun Sanomat Newspaper Building, Paimio Sanato-
rium and Vyborg City Library were such seminal works in Finnish and international
architecture that they in fact epitomise the general development and establishment
of “Functionalism”.^156 Heinonen’s study included a fairly comprehensive analysis of
Aalto’s four hospital designs created for competitions between 1927 and 1931, three
of which were for Finnish tuberculosis sanatoria. The proposal for Paimio Sanatorium
was second in order, and the only one that was ever built.^157 Heinonen traced the design
solutions for Paimio Sanatorium back to the international influences and formal motifs
152 Becchi and Carvais 2015, pp. 9–17; Caldenby 2015, pp. 263–271.
153 See e.g. Neuvonen et al. 2002 and Kaila 1997.
154 The Museum of Finnish Architecture published the study, which had been completed in 1976, posthumously in 1986.
155 Scholar David Pearson from the United States collaborated with Heinonen; his study, Alvar Aalto and the Interna
tional Style, was published in 1978.
156 Heinonen 1986, p. 281.
157 The architectural competition for the Central Finland Sanatorium, or Kinkomaa Sanatorium, in Muurame was car-
ried out in 1927; for the Tuberculosis Sanatorium of Southwest Finland, or Paimio Sanatorium, in 1928–1929; for
Central Ostrobothnia, or Kälviä Sanatorium in early 1929; and for the Zagreb University Hospital in Yugoslavia in- Heinonen 1986, p. 235.