Ilona Sagar on Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium

The exhibition

The exhibition Ilona Sagar: Omsorgens arkitektur (The Architecture of Care) takes an in-depth look at Aino and Alvar Aalto’s modernist tuberculosis sanatorium in Paimio, Finland, which was recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Through an immersive film installation, images and original objects, the exhibition explores the relationship between health, the body and architecture. It opens on 7 November at Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg.

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Ilona Sagar, Other Actors, 2025. Photo: Ilona Sagar, Other Actors, 2025.

“Paimio Sanatorium is one of the most celebrated buildings in the Nordic region. In British artist Ilona Sagar’s newly produced film Other Actors, the focus shifts to the people who lived, worked and were cared for there. We hear experiences and voices that are rarely heard in traditional histories,” says Olivia Berkowicz, curator at Röhsska Museum.

Ilona Sagar credit Paulina Figueroa and Somerset House
Ilona Sagar. Photo: Paulina Figueroa and Somerset House

Sagar’s film is shown alongside some twenty design objects, images, drawings and archival material from the sanatorium, on loan from the Alvar Aalto Foundation, Artek and the Paimio Sanatorium Foundation. Among the furniture designed specifically for the sanatorium were functionalist armchairs with a slight recline, intended to make breathing easier for patients. The Paimio Armchair is still in production today.

“Many of the design ideas that emerged from Paimio remain deeply relevant today. The Aaltos were pioneers of a humanistic approach to design, but their work has often come to be seen as highly sought-after design classics, detached from the intentions and politics that shaped them. I hope the exhibition makes another reading of these histories possible, one that brings back some of their radicalism,” says Ilona Sagar.

The exhibition is Ilona Sagar’s first solo exhibition in Sweden, and it has been designed by Swiss designer Adrien Rovero. Sagar is also currently nominated for the Jarman Award, one of the UK’s leading prizes for artists working with moving image.

Architecture built around care

Paimio Sanatorium was completed in 1933 and became the international breakthrough for architects Aino and Alvar Aalto. It was an early forerunner of patient-centred care, designed on the idea that the architecture itself should help patients recover. Light, ventilation, colour and the purpose-made furniture were all carefully adapted to the needs of vulnerable, bedridden patients. Even details such as silent washbasins and hygienic spittoons were designed with care for both the individual and the community.

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Photo: Ola Kolehmainen, © Paimio Sanatorium Foundation

New perspectives on architectural history

The exhibition brings out the collective work behind the sanatorium, with particular focus on Aino Aalto’s role in shaping a project that has long been associated mainly with Alvar Aalto.

“Fifty years after Alvar Aalto’s death, we want to offer new perspectives on one of the Aaltos’ most important works. Working on the exhibition has developed our knowledge of Aino Aalto’s role and strengthened her representation in the museum’s collections. Through Ilona Sagar’s work, questions arise about how architecture affects people’s health, wellbeing and relationships – questions that are at least as urgent today as when the sanatorium was built,” says Nina Due, museum director at Röhsska Museum.

Dates

Ilona Sagar: Omsorgens arkitektur is on view at Röhsska Museum from 7 November 2026 to 5 June 2027.
The exhibition is supported by Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland.

By Editorial Team, ScandinavianDesign.com