paimio sanatorium

Chapter 1 | Introduction

and spatial complexity. The structural systems developed, as well as the heating, ven-

tilation and mechanical air conditioning systems. The typology evolved from earlier

pavilions to block hospitals.^235

Tuberculosis sanatoria were built for one purpose only and had spaces designated

for the necessary activities, such as ward rooms and sundecks. As the disease is con-

tagious, isolation was one of the guiding principles in the design of these specialist

hospitals. At Paimio as well as the other Finnish sanatoria, the isolation principle is

evident in the selection of the hospital site.^236 Favouring separate small patient rooms

instead of large Nightingale wards was also a means to isolate patients.^237 The national

movement to organise treatment and care for tuberculosis patients and Modernism

emerged concurrently. The modernist formal idiom and solutions, such as flat roofs, bal-

conies and roof gardens became popular even in northern climates such as in Finland.

These themes catered to the trendy tastes of the affluent upper classes but also more

pragmatic considerations, such as treating tuberculosis. The sanatoria became models

for housing construction.^238 According to an article by the Canadian architectural

historian Margaret Campbell, “What Tuberculosis Did for Modernism: The Influence

of a Curative Environment on Modernist Design and Architecture”, architecture,

therapies and physical recuperation were believed to be integrally linked up until the

development of efficient antibiotics in the 1950s.^239 Another research group, in an arti-

cle titled “Collapse and Expand: Architecture and Tuberculosis Therapy in Montreal,

1909, 1933, 1954”, has looked into how different tuberculosis treatment methods have

overlapped, how old methods were replaced by new ones and how different therapies

have co-existed over a period of time. According to the article, architecture was seen a

method of treatment and one that developed hand in hand with other treatments.^240

In earlier research, the tuberculosis sanatorium has been seen as a tool for healing and

research has been undertaken specifically into the interaction and discourse between

medical experts and architects. In this study, the role of the experts of the State Medical

Board has been discussed in a separate chapter, and the actions of authorities and norms

become evident as part of the building process.

235 Verderber & Fine 2000, Chapter 1 “The Six Waves of Health Architecture”, pp. 3–16.

236 See Koskela 1998.

237 Adams et al. 2008, p. 915.

238 Campbell 2005, pp. 1–3/15.

239 Campbell 2005, p. 10/15.

240 Adams et al. 2008, pp. 908–942.