In this episode, Beatriz Colomina discusses with Hanna Harris what she calls the road not taken in architecture: designing not only for the idealized, healthy, upright body, but also for the vulnerable — the sick, the elderly, those whose needs often remain invisible. She highlights how Aino and Alvar Aalto’s human approach at Paimio Sanatorium already pointed in this direction, shaped by their sensitivity to patients’ experiences and even their own encounters with illness.

The conversation also touches on pandemics and how they have reshaped architecture, both historically and in our own time.

Beatriz Colomina is a renowned architectural historian and theorist, and a professor at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the relationship between architecture, media, and society, with significant contributions to understanding modernism and contemporary design through her influential books and exhibitions.

This conversation was recorded at the 2024 Spirit of Paimio Conference, hosted in the iconic Paimio Sanatorium — Alvar and Aino Aalto’s modernist masterpiece from the 1930s.

Discover more at www.paimiosanatorium.com