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Paimio Sanatorium is a former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland Proper, designed by...

Paimio Sanatorium is a former tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland Proper, designed by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. Aalto received the commission to design the building after winning an architectural competition for the project held in 1929. The building was completed in 1932, and soon after received much critical acclaim both in Finland and abroad. The building is widely regarded as one of his most important early designs, and was designed at the same time as the Vyborg Library. Though the building represents the 'modernist' period of Aalto's career, and followed many of the tenets of Le Corbusier's pioneering ideas for modernist architecture (e.g. ribbon windows, roof terraces, machine aesthetic), it also carried the seeds of Aalto's later move towards a more synthetic approach. For instance, the main entrance is marked by a nebulous-shaped canopy unlike anything being designed at that time by the older generation of modernist architects. Aalto's starting point for the design of the sanatorium was to make the building itself a contributor to the healing process. He liked to call the building a "medical instrument". For instance, particular attention was paid to the design