Chapter 1 | Introductionfocused on Aalto’s influences.^189 Linares saw the sanatorium as a dualistic work that
can, on the one hand, be interpreted superficially as a repetition of Modernist motifs
and, on the other hand, as a synthesis of those and of Aalto’s own architectural training
which was deeply anchored in local values and attitudes.^190 Mateo Closa’s article “El
Sanatorio de Paimio entre la mímesis y la invención” (The Paimio Sanatorium Between
Mimesis and Invention) discussed the architectural composition of the sanatorium.^191
He was interested in, for example, the manifestations of machine romanticism. F. Javier
Biurrun’s article “D’ailleurs c’est toujours les autres qui meurent” (Besides, It’s Always
the Others Who Die)^192 draws parallels between Paimio Sanatorium and the art of its
time. The special feature in this article is the composition diagrams.^193
Finnish art historian Minnamaria Koskela’s master’s thesis Paimion parantola
- rakennus kuin “lääketieteellinen instrumentti” (Paimio Sanatorium – A Building Like
a “Medical Instrument”) concentrated on how doctors and the nursing staff con-
tributed to the design of the sanatorium. Koskela showed that the design work was
not solely based on science and rationalism as it was also influenced by the common
perceptions and beliefs associated with tuberculosis.^194
The historic building survey that Ark-byroo Architects carried out in 2000 cov-
ered the history of the construction from 1928 to 2000, including a room inventory,
photo graphic documentation, and a colour and surface material analysis.^195 The
work was commissioned for the purpose of building protection. In 2005, based on
this survey, the National Board of Antiquities drew up a proposal for the nomination
of Paimio Sanatorium to the UNESCO World Heritage List.^196 A seminar publica-
tion by ICOMOS on Paimio Sanatorium on its protection values also exists.^197 The
author of the present work together with Ark-byroo Architects launched a website
aimed at the general public in 2014 introducing the architectural solutions of Paimio
Sanatorium.^198 Later that same year, the Alvar Aalto Academy and Building Infor-
mation organisation published a monograph on Paimio Sanatorium, containing
several short articles on the topic.
The book by the French architect Jean-Paul Cremnitzer, Architecture et santé
(Architecture and Health) discussed the typology of European sanatoria of the 1920s
and 1930s.^199 The typology of sanatoria, different national situations and individual
189 Linares 1991, pp. 59–79.
190 Linares 1991, pp. 62–63.
191 Closa 1991, pp. 81–105.
192 Biurrun 1991, pp. 107–131.
193 In these diagrams, Biurrun compared the solutions employed in Paimio Sanatorium to the designs of Villa Snell-
man, Zonnestraal Sanatorium, Bauhaus Main Building in Dessau and the competition entries of the Kinkomaa San-
atorium and the Zagreb Hospital of Aalto. He also compared Paimio Sanatorium to the other proposals submitted
to the competition. Biurrun 1991, pp. 114–131.
194 Koskela 1998, p. 86.
195 Heikinheimo et al., Ark-byroo Architects 2000.
196 Ehrström et al. eds. 2005.
197 Salastie 2010.
198 The content of the website http://www.paimiosanatorium.fi is based on the first stage of the author’s doctoral diserta-
tion conducted in 1999–2002.
199 Cremnitzer 2005.