I am looking farther into Aalto's Paimio Sanatorium, and why this building has become a piece to study for my Thesis. Architecturally speaking, authors have spoken at length about the important furniture, finishes, and details that were designed by Aalto for this project, and it should be learned from and studied. However, my draw to the Sanatorium is the fact that even though the building serves as a long-term health care facility, it holds many connections to the real world (it's hard to avoid speaking about heterotopia as I'm explaining these connections).
Before I began thinking about a typical tuberculosis patient's day in the Sanatorium, the term "connection" only had one definition for me. I felt connections would happen in between rooms, mostly in the corridor, and they all were physical connections. As I studied the daily routine, I noticed that these connections were not the important ones. It is important to design a space where a person, however disconnected with the world, can have emotional connections with their surroundings.
On my sketch below, I show a timeline/section of a Patient A (noted with red) going through his day, and the emotional connections he has in each space that is created at the Sanatorium.
I ALMOST posted the floorplan of the building so that these locations could be seen in plan, but felt that these ideas of emotional connections would be too grounded and specific if I went that route. The important piece of information for my thesis involves how people are emotionally connected to spaces, and how spaces can create emotion.
I ALMOST posted the floorplan of the building so that these locations could be seen in plan, but felt that these ideas of emotional connections would be too grounded and specific if I went that route. The important piece of information for my thesis involves how people are emotionally connected to spaces, and how spaces can create emotion.
What would happen if you changed the words you currently have as 'connection' to 'transition' and changed all the other spaces to be called 'connection'??
ReplyDeleteAlong the same lines as what Andres said, the linear view in section makes this a somewhat rigid flow - it would be nice to see this "daily routine" in a 3 dimensional or circular manner, so that the patient is shown startign and ending at the same place. it is an out and back, not justa straight shot, or it is a series of 3 or 4 or 5 out and backs every day. My grandfather recently entered an assisted living facility and he spends much of his day in his room. However, 2 or 3 times a day he will venture out into the various common areas. Similar to your sketch, it made me think of what the experience is like and is there a disconnect between the living spaces and the common spaces.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to post here that I had Nellie post her image for VT so I coudl draw and make comments on it. We also had a chat about it. Please see her VT to see the dialogue. Looking forward to seeing Nellie's next iteration...
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