It is proposed that the Paimio Sanatorium Foundation will be the building’s new owner

The Hospital District of Southwest Finland has asked for bids for the Paimio Sanatorium building and its contents. The bidding period ends on 30.11.2018.

Paimio Sanatorium will be best preserved in its entirety for the future by setting up a non-profit foundation to own and manage the whole building.

The declared purpose of the Foundation is the fostering, advancement and development of the architecture, technology and cultural historically valuable intellectual and material property, and the related values.

The aim is to invite the Alvar Aalto Foundation to be a founder of the new Foundation, along with other front-rank foundations from the technology, medicine and culture sectors. The minimum capital requirement at the founding stage is 50,000 euros. Extensive international fundraising constitutes a 2 million euro buffer fund.

The Foundation will own the entire Sanatorium, rent out spaces for appropriate use and be responsible for site maintenance aided by its own staff.

A thorough renovation will be carried out in line with the management plan, through modern-architecture and green-tech research projects from an education and development viewpoint. International funding for the renovation will also be applied for.

The Foundation will keep to the Paimio Sanatorium Conservation Management Plan (www.alvaraalto.fi/paimio). This sets out the objectives for the use, maintenance, housekeeping and future of the building as a whole.

The Foundation will advocate the addition of Paimio Sanatorium to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, along with other major Alvar Aalto sites.

In the future Paimio Sanatorium could be a place for living experience of architecture, well-being and culture

Paimio Sanatorium’s setting offers experiences and new sensations rooted in authenticity, science and overall wellbeing. Visitors can overnight on the terrace under an open sky, get to know the tremendous, colourful contemporary architecture and design in 1930s spirit, sit in the world’s first bent-plywood chairs, pick berries in the surrounding forest, listen to lectures in well-lit spaces opening onto pine forests. Those spaces can host corporate occupational wellbeing events, pop ups, research projects in various disciplines, training sessions, and offer visitors unique overnighting experiences.

The property needs one main tenant who uses about half of the whole. The rent for this can pay the maintenance of the property, as happens now. The current main tenant until 2020 is The Foundation for the Rehabilitation of Children and Young People, The Mannerheim League for Child Welfare, which has expressed an interest in continuing to operate in the building.

Other activities in the Sanatorium will complement, diversify and internationalize Paimio Sanatorium, making it a major international travel destination. Its location close to Turku is extremely good. Transport links to airports are excellent.

Read more:
APPEAL FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ALVAR AALTO’S THERAPEUTIC MODERNISM

Further information:
architect Henna Helander,
Chair
Finnish Association of Architects SAFA
Tel. +358 40 754 0932
henna.helander@safa.fi

architect Tommi Lindh,
Managing Director
Alvar Aalto Foundation
Tel. +358 44 562 1625
tommi.lindh@alvaraalto.fi

Mr. Heikki Alanen
Chair
Alvar & Aino Aalto Estate Ltd.
Tel. +358 50 568 8066
heikki.yh.alanen@gmail.com

Paimio Chairs in the auditorium in 1930´s. Photo Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Museum.

Doctors in Paimio Sanatorium in 1933. Photo Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Museum.

Roof terrace in 1930´s Photo Gustaf Welin, Alvar Aalto Museum.