Paimio Sanatorium

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 placed the lamps in the room out of the patients' line of vision and painted the ceiling a relaxing grayish green so as to avoid glare.

As the patients spent a long time — typically several years — in the sanatorium, there was a distinct community atmosphere among both staff and patients; something which Aalto had taken into account in his designs, with various communal facilities, a chapel, as well as staff housing, and even specially laid out promenade routes through the surrounding forest landscape.

Soon after, antibiotics saw the virtual end of the disease, and the number of patients was reduced dramatically and the building was converted into a general hospital.

Since 2014, the main building and some staff houses have been part of The Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Children and Young People which was established in 2000 by the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare.