4. 1 Aalto’s Concept of Technology
T
he general assumption underpinning the present research was that the architect’s
theory, his thinking, directs his actions. Aalto’s letters and literary output were
investigated to arrive at an understanding of what his concept of technology was
during the construction process of Paimio Sanatorium. His intellectual influences were
traced back to CIAM, because Aalto’s joining the organisation coincided with the initial
stages of the Paimio Sanatorium project. I argued that the ideas of CIAM’s central ideolo-
gists, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, inspired Aalto in his own thinking. I further stated
that Aalto drew influences from their culturally radical Modernistic discourse and applied
these ideas to his work. The research question led the author also to analyse how the main
ideologists of CIAM discussed technological themes in their own texts and how Aalto
reflected these ideas in his own writings between 1928 and 1933. Aalto’s texts were read in
juxtaposition with the international discourse. CIAM’s members were expected to actively
promote the new movement in their respective local spheres, a task that Aalto undertook
vigorously by penning articles, participating in exhibitions, and designing buildings.
I arrived at the conclusion that particularly Die Wohnung für das Existenzmini-
mum conference, held in Frankfurt am Main in October 1929, was a decisive source of
inspiration for Aalto. That was the first time he entered into personal dialogue with his
major European peers at a serious professional forum. Although the papers written for
CIAM conferences by its two leading ideologists, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius,
were focused in this research, it is noteworthy that neither of these authors were present
at the event in 1929, which Aalto attended. Pierre Jeanneret and Sigfried Giedion deliv-
ered the papers on their behalf, which probably only added to their aura of authority. Le
Corbusier’s challenging ideas about observing the biological needs of human beings, a
new architectural attitude, the necessity of a thoroughgoing methodology when realising
minimum apartments and breaking down problems into parts, were adopted by Aalto.
These priorities were clearly expressed, for example, in Aalto’s article in Domus magazine,
in which Aalto introduced the discourse on the minimum apartment undertaken within
CIAM to his Finnish peers, and also in his critique on the Stockholm Exhibition. Walter
Gropius, in turn, appealed to Aalto’s sense of social responsibility and imagination. With
the cool detachment of a scientist Gropius stated, that the structural change in society
was more profound than the housing shortage prevalent at that time. Bringing to the fore
the social dimensions of modernisation, for example the social status of women, reso-
nated with Aalto. In my view, Aalto came to be aware of the new social order particularly
through the influence of Gropius.
While Gropius’ ideas were reflected in Aalto’s texts from the early 1930s, Aalto’s
discourse did not take place exclusively in the literary domain. Aalto’s discourse was also
about operating locally. In Paimio Sanatorium, the new social order of modernisation
found its architectural manifestation specifically in the patient room. Therefore, Aalto’s
creation was socially more radical than other hospitals built in the same period.The
architecture of the public institution served all tuberculosis patients, regardless of their