By Peder Valle, Collections Registrar
The modern tuberculosis hospital that opened in Paimio, Finland, in 1932 was designed with great care, down to the smallest detail. Not just the building itself but also the furniture and other fixtures and fittings were designed by the young, highly sought-after architect, Alvar Aalto.
The word “sanatorium” derives from the Latin word “sanare”, which means “to heal”.
A place promoting health
The hospital in Paimio was based on these ideas. The interior was simple and sober, but had strong colours and was equipped with specially designed furniture that was meant to emphasise the primary function of promoting healing and good health. The furniture and fittings, like the building itself, were designed with the well-being of the patients in mind. The gently rounded chairs encouraged patients to lean back and open their airways more fully. The curved porcelain sinks were designed to muffle the sound of the running water.
Useful architecture and design
The tuberculosis hospital in Paimio is an early Finnish example of functionalism, the style that embodied the modernist principles of simplicity and functionality in design. The stylistic idiom of functionalism was meant to reflect the ideals of science and mathematics; design and architecture were to follow the logic of clarity and rationalism. The concept of being fit for purpose – being useful – was a key element. The ideals of modernism influenced several generations of architects and designers.
“Gesamtkunstwerk”, from German, means “total artwork” and implies that all art forms should interact with each other, thus producing a higher entity. Within design and architecture this generally means that all the components and details are designed by one person, using the same template.
Ornament and crime
Similar ideas were expressed by one of Josef Hoffmann’s contemporaries, the Austrian architect Adolf Loos. In 1910 he gave a lecture, “Ornament and crime” (German: Ornament und Verbrechen), in which he described the desire for decoration as “primitive”. Loos regarded the elimination of ornament as a key element in the development of a modern design culture.
Loos’s argument was easy to understand. In all contexts it became the norm to refer to simple, unornamented forms as “clean”. The quality of being simple was equated with being rational and healthy, and here the parallels with modern epidemiology are apparent. In 1935 Thor B. Kielland, director of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Oslo, stated that “the healthy functionalism is our watchword. No more plush fabrics, elaborate trimmings, turned wooden knobs, lavish carving and half-dead palm trees that collect dust and create unnecessary work. We demand simple, straightforward designs […] that are easy to keep clean.” Kielland’s words make it clear that aesthetic and hygienic health had been merged into two sides of the same coin.
