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  • Wolfgang LuchtW_Lucht@mstdn.social
    Jul 22, 2026, 3:19 PM

    The floors of Alvar #Aalto's #Paimio Sanatorium in SW #Finland, completed in 1933, considered one of the top icons of modernist #architecture, has yellow floors in some areas - to brighten the moods of patients struggling with illness, in this case tuberculosis. Aalto's attention to buildings designed to serve and support human qualities and social togetherness is what sets his modernism apart from so many failings by less capable architects. In 1933, all of this was revolutionary.

    A staircase leading up has shallow steps and is a buttery yellow. The eagle are white, the handrails black. Everything looks very clean - it's a hospital, or rather: was a hospital.
    A view down a corridor with windows on the right, also with a bright mature yellow floor.
    A detail of the yellow stairwell shows yellow steps, white walls, and a slender, minimalist handrail in black on a grey oval.
    A model of the Paimio Sanatorium in black and white shows a complex of buildings at various angles and a great variety of shapes and correspondences, with the main building, several stories high, consisting of three wings radiating from a common center.
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  • Wolfgang LuchtW_Lucht@mstdn.social
    Jul 22, 2026, 4:45 PM

    @AndyDearden
    Indeed!

    Aalto objected to Marcel Breuer's Bauhaus solution to democratising the bourgeois lounge chair by making it mass-produceable with metal tubing and modernist design. Aalto and his collaborators worked hard to figure out how to do the same with layered wood (but how do you bend it!?) as they felt it is a lot more humane to both the eye and touch compared to the coldness and glare of metal. The image shows one version, designed to support breathing for tuberculosis patients.

    A wooden shape designed to act like a mellow spring supports a black seating area with an elegant curve.
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