In 1929, the Finnish city of Paimio issued a requirement for a new tuberculosis sanitarium. There was no cure for tuberculosis, the best chance for the patient was to attempt to ride it out under a doctors care. Sounds like a miserable place with suffering and death all around. The building built to the requirement became much more than that. Finland was a new country and there was a new generation of architects ready to try out new ideas. One of those was architect Alvar Aalto. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
The early rational movement architecture was quite large and blocky, if not yet brutally so. The stamp designers use of bright colors do a good job of showing the building in it’s best light. There is just not room to show the special features inside to make this easier for patients and staff.
Todays stamp is issue A294, a 1 Markka stamp issued by Finland on May 2nd, 1978. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations featuring the work of Finnish architect Alvar Aalto two years after his death. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.00 used.
Alvar Aalto was born in 1898 when Finland was still a Dutchy of Czarist Russia. He had a Finnish father and a Swedish mother. He studied in Helsinki and fought with the White Guards in the war of independence from Russia. His early work was mainly traditional styled houses but as he got more experience and traveled to Italy he became more interested in the new rational international style. I did a Spanish stamp with one of their architects on a similar journey here, https://the-philatelist.com/2020/03/02/spain-1976-we-can-now-again-cellebrate-the-rational-architect-who-irrationally-ran-off/ . Rationalist architecture was very much in evidence with the Paimio Sanitarium with it’s blocky shape, minimum decoration, and ribbon windows. There was however much done to make things more comfortable for the patients. The rooms had double occupancy but featured special no glare lighting and colors to help with sleeping. Each room had two wash basins of special design to be nearly silent. At the end of each floor there was a large balcony where even bedridden patients could be wheeled to see the sunshine. The staff that lived on site had walking trails through nearby forests. None of this may sound earth shattering to modern ears, but this was 1930. Image the horrors of the typical sanitarium then.
As Mr. Aalto aged he understood the limitations of having all new construction being undecorated blocks of concrete. His later work had more undulations in the designs and he worked on laminating wood so that it could better be used in situations with curves. That of course made the wood less natural and there is a forced quality to some of his later work that leave it less distinguished. In his early years he teamed with his fellow architect wife Aino but after she died in 1949, Alvar remarried a junior female architect with the firm named Elissa who was perhaps not able to support his work at the top level. It is of course normal for the creative to do their best work when they are young.
The Paimo Sanitarium still exists but thankfully is no longer needed by tuberculosis patients. It was a general hospital starting in the early 1960s. Today it is a physical rehabilitation center for children.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Finland. Many new countries get bogged down in old rivalry and do not take the time to invest in creating a new distinct future, Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.