paimio sanatorium

(Jacob Rumans) #1

Aalto added the north-facing windows, but did not change the design in which the


first-floor beams were suspended from the third-floor beam. He justified his choice


showing how this structural solution would allow daylight to penetrate deeper into


the building, and the section diagram of the dining hall became an important tool


of translation. The discussion on the dining hall intermediate floor structure has not


been entered into any records. It would appear, however, that the matter had been


discussed in December 1929, as the minutes state that the architect had for the main


part incorporated the requested changes into his designs.^697 Aalto did not at any


stage suggest any alteration to the structural or spatial solution of the dining hall;


on the contrary, with the aid of his powerful drawings, he was able to translate other


actors’ interests to support his view. In other words, Aalto improved on the health-re-


lated aspects of his proposal on the request of the medical experts, but he did not


compromise on his own architectural vision. There are no records of the discussions.


All wings in the sanatorium had flat roofs. A similar structure was used for the


roofs as for the intermediate floors – a separate upper slab. If the beam came within


five centimetres or closer to the upper slab, a two-centimetre insulating panel was to


be used on the surface of the slab. The top slab was trowel-finished. Roofs that did


not serve as balconies or decks, were covered with two layers of bitumen felt, with


bitumen sealing. The sundeck floors were similarly covered with two layers of felt.


On top of them, concrete slabs were laid and attached, then sealed with red asphalt.


The bitumen felt was continued up the wall by 30 centimetres as a plinth. The felt


edge curved underneath the render or galvanised sheet. The water-proofing of the


ward-specific sundecks and balconies was executed using only one felt layer, accord-


ing to the work specification. The insulation of the roof structure with coke cinder was


included in the contract for the construction of the building frame.^698


Roof drainage took place via drain pipes. The pipes running across ordinary roof


areas were made of galvanised plate and were joined under the roof edge to the asphalt


gutter with a double lead sleeve. One-metre long ground gutters grooved into granite


directed rainwater to the perimeter drain. Rainwater was drained from the sundecks


and the northern elevation of the patient wing through three-inch Mannesman pipes


running inside the building frame. The internal roof pipes were connected to the


sewer with an odourless system.^699


Corridors and staircases had reinforced concrete walls. When casting the walls, roofing


tiles were placed on the outside of the formwork and the thermal insulation layer on the


inside. The insulation material used was expanded cork.^700 Similar wall structures were


used in the kitchen building, the top section of the boiler room and some sections of the


697 Building Board December 8, 1929, Section 2. PSA.
698 Aalto [1930]a, p. 12.
699 Ibidem, p. 13
700 Expanded cork was made by heating cork to 150 degrees centigrade and by bonding it with odourless bitumen.
The use of the material for insulation became popular in the 1920s as concrete structures gained ground. It was
more expensive than peat board, which was also used for insulation. Kaila 1997, p. 523.
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