Paimio´s Three Walls

Abstract

Alvar Aalto´s career has certainly been a complex one and has been reported by official historiography to be divided into some more or less well-defined periods which correspond to unitary in time clusters of projects. Thus, Paimio has come to be for architecture the consolidation of the Modern Finnish Project at its apparently orthodox splendor. Aalto, from the very beginning, was attracted by the possibility of generating his own project message. This may be the reason why he found researching into the evocative power of opposite conciliation which allowed him to obtain efficient tools to service his project. The peculiar presence of opposing elements in the same project governs the task of defining a new way to conceive architecture. There are truths in Paimio that withstand and refuse to be concealed under the apparent modern uniformity so many times appraised. All this becomes obvious and in many of the project syntax elements, but it is especially evident in the layout of the three walls of the rooms: the modern wall that stand weightless, defined by its immaterial abstraction; the heavy wall, defined by its physic features and bond to the XIX century tradition; and finally, the wall with an immaterial vocation, endowed with almost invisible features, and of deep eastern roots.