HELSINKI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- At Paimio Sanatorium in southwestern Finland, long patient wings reach toward the sunlight amid a pine forest, while terraces once allowed tuberculosis patients to rest outdoors. Inside, washbasins were shaped to soften the sound of running water, and leather-covered door handles were designed to feel warm and prevent patients' sleeves from snagging.
Completed in 1933, the sanatorium is among 13 buildings and complexes designed by renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and his collaborators that were recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the "Aalto Works."
From its overall layout to its smallest fittings, Paimio was designed around the experience of its patients -- an expression of Aalto's belief that buildings should care for the people inside them. The inscription has drawn renewed attention to how he made modernism more humane, rooted in its surroundings and relevant to everyday life, Panu Savolainen, professor of architectural history and conservation at Aalto University, told Xinhua.
FROM FUNCTION TO HUMAN EXPERIENCE
Modernism spread across Europe in the early 20th century, offering efficient and affordable solutions to rapid urbanization and shortages of housing and public facilities.
But its pursuit of function and efficiency could also produce practical yet impersonal buildings, Savolainen said. Aalto retained modernism's functional principles while softening its harder edges through closer attention to human experience.
Savolainen believed the Paimio Sanatorium marked a turning point. Designed with unusual attention to the experience of patients, the complex explored how architecture could support both physical comfort and emotional well-being long before "patient experience" became an established concept.
Aalto carried the same concern into homes and industrial communities.
At the Sunila Housing Area in Kotka, southeastern Finland, residential blocks follow the terrain and were positioned to make use of sunlight, clean air and the surrounding landscape. Even modest apartments incorporated comparatively modern kitchens and toilets, and many included balconies.
In a journal article on Sunila, Aalto argued that industrial progress should improve not only production, but also workers' homes and quality of life. Sunila put that belief into practice, Savolainen said, reflecting Aalto's conviction that modern architecture "must first and foremost be considered from the human point of view."
WHERE BUILDINGS MEET NATURE
Aalto's buildings also create a two-way relationship with nature: architecture adapts to the landscape, while the landscape is invited indoors.
Villa Mairea in Pori, western Finland, offers one of the clearest examples. Much of the original woodland around the house was preserved. An unpolished gravel path leads through the trees to a low, understated building clad partly in vertical timber. From a distance, it seems to have grown out of the forest.
Aalto did not typically begin by leveling the ground, removing rocks and clearing trees, only to recreate a landscape after construction, Savolainen said. Instead, he treated the existing terrain and vegetation as the starting point for design.
According to Savolainen, Aalto absorbed the international language of modernism without simply copying it. Concrete, glass and straight lines remained, but wood, brick, stone and curves allowed his buildings to respond to Finland's climate, landscape and construction traditions.
His work demonstrated that architecture could be international without losing its roots, Savolainen concluded.
ECHOES ACROSS CULTURES
Over the decades, Aalto's architecture and design have become a cultural calling card for Finland, helping shape international perceptions of Finnish design, said Yang Xinyi, head of Finnish language studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University.
"In China, many people may not know Aalto by name, but they have probably encountered his influence," Yang said, citing streamlined glass vases, three-legged stools and the pale interiors commonly known as "Nordic style."
Yet Aalto's legacy goes beyond such visual features. Savolainen said he treated architecture, landscape, interiors and furniture as an integrated whole, shaped around how people live and feel.
Yang also sees parallels between Aalto's respect for nature and traditional Chinese ideas of following nature and pursuing harmony between humanity and the environment. For Yang, these parallels show how civilizations rooted in different landscapes and cultures can arrive at a shared understanding of how people should relate to their surroundings.
"Aalto's work reminds us that architecture should respect the land beneath it and respond to the people within it," she said. "By taking root in its own tradition, it may gain a vitality that reaches far beyond its place of origin." ■