1.5 The Scope and the Concepts
1.5.1 HOSPITAL ARCHITECTURE
According to the Argentinian architectural theorist Juan Pablo Bonta, the analysis
of expressive systems in architecture can only be made in terms of classes, such as
functional and formal typologies. Different types of meanings will be conducive to
different expressive systems. Each expressive system will selectively highlight some
meanings while obscuring others.^220 The class referred to in this study was based
on technological solutions in architecture within a certain historical context.^221 For
example hospital architecture, Finnish architecture of the 1930s, or Aalto’s oeuvre on
the whole remained outside the scope of this examination, although some buildings
belonging to these classes have been referred to. For example, the mechanical air
conditioning systems in contemporary hospitals that were introduced in Arkkitehti
(The Finnish Architectural Journal) were referred to in articles written by the engi-
neers and architects working on these other projects.^222
Despite the fact that tuberculosis was the worst public health problem in Finland
in the early decades of the 20th century^223 , and the task of designing the public sana-
torium in Paimio offered the architect a social point of departure for developing new
forms, this dissertation does not deal with the socio-historical significance of the
hospital project.^224 This is not a study on Finnish sanatorium architecture either, a
subject which is still to be addressed.^225 Despite the fact that the hospital as a build-
ing type had evolved for centuries, the sanatorium was a relatively recent building
220 Bonta 1979, passim pp. 125–129.
221 See also, e.g., Raija-Liisa Heinonen, according to whom the architecture of Paimio Sanatorium appeared
to have been influenced by other building types than just hospital architecture. Heinonen 1986, passim.,
especially p. 237 and pp. 239–243.
222 See, e.g., engineer G. Huber’s article on the City of Helsinki Tuberculosis Hospital and architect Jussi Paatela’s
article on the Red Cross Hospital. Huber 1929 and Paatela 1933.
223 The question of establishing tuberculosis sanatoria had become topical in Finland at the turn of the century.
The first large public sanatorium built in Finland was the Satalinna Tuberculosis Sanatorium, opened in 1925.
The Finnish Defence Forces fought the “white plague” in the 1920s by raising the standard of hygiene in bar-
racks. The first actual military sanatorium was opened in 1929 in the municipality of Uusikirkko in the province
of Vyborg. A real turning point in the founding of public sanatoria was in 1930, when the Act on State Aid came
into force. See Pesonen 1980, passim, and Mäkinen 2000, passim.
224 Maarit Henttonen’s dissertation on women’s and children’s hospitals brought out the social underpinnings and
models in hospital building in Finland at the time. Henttonen 2009.
225 Finnish sanatoria, a substantial phenomenon, from the 1930s have not been studied albeit Finnish hospital
architecture has been studied in dissertations (Henttonen 2009, Mäkinen 2000 and Kjisik 2009), in a Licentiate
thesis (Paatela 2003), and in Master’s theses (e.g. Holma 1993, Havu 1996 and Koskela 1998). Many studies on
architectural history have also dealt with hospitals and sanatoria.