3.4 The Hybrid Windows
P
lenty of sunlight and good ventilation were key principles alongside rest and diet
in the treatment of tuberculosis patients. The decree governing the state aid for
sanatoria prescribed that the State Medical Board be presented the structural
specifications of the sanatorium’s windows.^739 During the competition stage, Aalto had
wanted to ascertain the views of the State Medical Board experts on the architectural
solutions in his proposed design and asked for their opinion. Edward Horelli, Senior
Medical Officer of the State Medical Board, agreed to comment on Aalto’s proposal
while the competition was still ongoing, suggesting that the 8.4 square-metre windows
in the patient rooms were too large, given some patients could not tolerate sunlight.
From the medical perspective, Horelli saw that the patients should have the option of
avoiding sunlight in their rooms, so half the proposed window size would suffice.^740
3.4.1 ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS
The window programme for Paimio Sanatorium included wood and steel windows,
their combinations and special windows, such as skylights. The archives of the Aalto
Museum hold some 50 drawings that have been categorised as window drawings
associated with the Paimio Sanatorium project. These drawings include 13 standard
window drawings, only three of which are for the Paimio Sanatorium building.
The rest of the standard window drawings illustrate the architect’s aim to develop
universal window standards.^741
Aalto used the patient room window as a vignette in the competition sheets.
It was an asymmetrical, vertically divided three-part steel window with only the
left-hand section reaching to the floor. Each vertical section was equal in width:
some 70 centimetres wide. The bottom edge of the two sections on the right was
approximately 90 centimetres from the floor, and beneath them stood a floor-stand-
ing column radiator. The window area specified in the drawing was approximately
four square metres. The floor and the window wall were joined at right angles. The
window was a double-sash window with an air pocket in between. The top part of
the window was a window type known as the “health window”. This window type
had grown popular in public buildings in Finland at the end of the 19th century.
The inner window was bottom hung and the outer one top hung. The ventilation
739 Asetus valtionavusta 270/1929, pykälä 6. (Decree on State Aid 270/1929, Section 6).
740 E.J. Horelli’s letter to Alvar Aalto, January 2, 1929. AAM.
741 Elina Standertskjöld has discussed Aalto’s standardisation objectives in her articles “Alvar Aalto and Standardisa-
tion” and “Alvar Aalto’s standard drawings 1929–1932”. Standertskjöld, 1992a, pp. 74–88; Standertskjöld, 1992b,
pp. 89–111; for further discussion on Aalto’s standard window drawings, see Section 2.6.