3.4.3 THE HORIZONTAL HEALTH WINDOW
Aalto reduced the window area in the patient room by half during the competition
period, having been advised to do so by the medical expert of the State Medical
Board that financed the project. He gained advantage compared to the other com-
petitors as, in this way, he became privy to the medical expert’s opinion on the win-
dow size while the competition was still ongoing. The actions of the medical expert
as well as Aalto seem unethical. At the construction stage, Aalto also followed the
recommendation of medical experts by giving up the asymmetrical window that
partly reached down to the floor.
Aalto had previous experience of using foreign-made steel window systems in the
Southwest Finland Agricultural Cooperative Building, the Standard Apartment House
and the Turun Sanomat Building, in which he had made use of the Dutch Crittal Braat
steel windows and doors.^798 Aalto kept in contact with the building element manu-
facturers and obtained information on new products. The key innovation of Aalto’s
window standards made for Brussels was the use of tubular profiles in sliding windows,
one sliding inside the other. The window systems used in Finland, such as the Crittal
Braat systems, typically employed fairly simple, straight-angle profiles. Tubular profiles
were used in the Braat system as a standard for corner joints.^799 In Paimio Sanatorium,
the round profile was used exclusively in the detailing of the outer corners of the strip
windows in patient corridors of the A wing. Another special feature in Aalto’s windows
was that the interior sash of fixed windows could be opened for cleaning. This principle
was carried through to the wooden and steel windows used in the building.
Aalto drew up the window diagrams, measured the windows and determined their
maximum opening angle. Aalto’s office did not, however, design the details of the steel
windows for Paimio, and instead relied on the skills of Crichton-Vulcan’s drawing
department. Crichton-Vulcan determined the suitable profiles and drew up the detailed
working drawings. The drawings were signed by, at least, O. Nylander of Crichton-
Vulcan. Exquisite details that especially stood out were the serial window opening
devices used in the B wing reading room, dining hall and patient corridor. The windows
in Paimio Sanatorium were either outward or inward opening. According to European
modernists, inward-opening windows took up too much space while outward-opening
windows were difficult to clean.^800 Thus the motivation behind Giedion’s exhibition of
sideways sliding sash windows was to provide a space-saving solution. Aalto apparently
gathered that using sideways sliding sash windows was not feasible in the harsh Finnish
climate, as the structure was unsealable. It was probably therefore, he did not propose
the use of this window type in Paimio Sanatorium. Aalto did, however, introduce a
whole sliding timber-framed glass wall in one of his later projects, Villa Mairea from
798 Aalto 1929a, p. 83; Aalto 1929d, p. 97; Aalto 1930c, p. 85.
799 Heikinheimo 2002, p. 70.
800 Standertskjöld 1992b, p. 92.