Archinect - News

The effect of epidemics on architecture and design

2020-03-18T18:32:00-04:00

Light, air, and hygiene [...] were the best treatment for tuberculosis at the time. The design and construction of specialized sanatoria coincided with the advent of Modernism. Architectural elements like flat roofs, terraces and balconies, and white- or light-painted rooms spread across Europe. Not unlike the sanatorium, the new architecture was intended to cure the perceived physical, nervous, and moral ailments brought on by crowded cities.

The collective desire to cure and prevent the seemingly unstoppable tuberculosis epidemic through deliberate design choices had given tremendous momentum to a revolutionary movement in our fairly recent architectural past: Modernism.

Staircase inside Alvar Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium. Photo courtesy Flickr user www.moritzbernoully.com.

It is too early to say which, or if any, lasting effect the developing COVID-19 health crisis will leave on design and architecture. The cultural, and mainly technological, impact already caused by the sudden global switch to remote working and teaching will likely only be the first sign of irreversible change requiring continuing solutions and adjustments in years to come.

Read more on the subject of health-centered design as guiding factors in the evolution of modernist architecture in Archinect's review of the book X-Ray Architecture by Beatriz Colomina.

Putting its future preservation into question, owner of Alvar Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium in Finland extends bidding period

2018-09-25T17:54:00-04:00

Considered one of Alvar Aalto's most important works, it came as little surprise that news of a Finnish district's plan to sell the architect's Paimio Sanatorium was met with shock and attempts at appeal.

Architects from the Finnish Association of Architects formed the Pro Paimio Committee and, along with the Alvar Aalto Foundation, have been working to ensure that any future owners commit to preserving the original architecture, interiors and furnishings in their entirety.

Photo: Maija Holma, Alvar Aalto Museum.

The Sanatorium is a protected site and any buyer will have to abide by the restrictions this implicates. However, those advocating on behalf of the key work of modern architecture are concerned that certain new usages could wreck the original interior, which was uniquely tailored to the needs of tuberculosis patients for whom the facility was built.

"Paimio is an integrated oeuvre d’art of architecture: only when all these parts are kept together, do they show the beauty ...

Disorientation, can be its own kind of decadence

2018-04-16T20:52:00-04:00

Latches that wouldn’t catch on doctors’ lab-coat sleeves replaced ordinary doorknobs, plywood wardrobes were raised off the floor for easier cleaning...radiant heat panels in the ceiling minimized drafts and balconies were oriented for optimal sun exposure. Other Modernist sanatoriums include the Klinik Clavadel in Davos, Josef Hoffmann’s Purkersdorf Sanatorium outside of Vienna and Jan Duiker and Bernard Bijvoet’s Sanatorium Zonnestraal

Alice Gregory, with a paean to sanatoriums. Plus, a review of contemporary, historical and Modernist, spa culture.