Dipoli is the main building of

Aalto University Aalto University ( fi, Aalto-yliopisto; sv, Aalto-universitetet) is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the ...

, located in the university's

Otaniemi Otaniemi ( Finnish), or Otnäs ( Swedish), is a district of Espoo, Finland. It is located near the border of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Otaniemi is located on the southern shore of the Laajalahti bay, next to the district of Tapiola near ...

campus in

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärv ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. It was designed by architects Reima and Raili Pietilä and opened in 1966. Dipoli was initially owned by the Student Union of the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; fi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu; sv, Tekniska högskolan) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki. The university was founded in ...

who sold it to

in 2014.

Name

The name of the building is a pun: it can mean

dipole In physics, a dipole () is an electromagnetic phenomenon which occurs in two ways: *An electric dipole deals with the separation of the positive and negative electric charges found in any electromagnetic system. A simple example of this system ...

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, but also "the second Poly", the second building of the polytechnic students. The original Polytechnic Students' Union, now called the "Old Poly" ( fi, Vanha Poli), was a

National Romantic Romantic nationalism (also national romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of nationalism in which the state claims its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs. This includes ...

building located on Lönnrotinkatu in Helsinki that was left behind when the university moved to

History

Helsinki University of Technology moved from

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

to Espoo in the early 1960s, with the first buildings to be constructed designed by architect

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, s ...

. In 1961 an architecture competition was held for what would become the new building for the Student Union of the university. Due to the challenging rocky location and adaptability requirements none of the competition entries fulfilled all the jury's demands and the first prize was not awarded: the second prize was shared by the architect couple Reima and Raili Pietilä and Osmo Lappo, who were asked to further develop their proposals. Finally, the design by the Pietiläs was chosen as the basis for the new building. Construction work began in 1965, and the building was ready for use in autumn 1966. In 1993 the building was transformed into a training centre for the university due to high maintenance costs. Besides its primary role, Dipoli is still regularly used for conventions, congresses and student parties. The building houses over 20 conference rooms and auditoriums. Dipoli was owned by the student union of Aalto University until 2013 when it was announced that the building would be sold to the university itself for an undisclosed sum. The building was extensively renovated between 2015 and 2017 turning it into the new main building for the university. The refurbished building includes an auditorium, restaurants and exhibitions spaces. The university's management also works in Dipoli.

Architecture

The building uses extensively materials from Finnish nature, such as pine wood, copper, and natural rocks. Dipoli has 500 windows of which only four are identical. The architects originally planned for as little interference with the natural granite of the site as possible; but blasting the hard granite base rock inevitably fragmented it. The building is seen as a key example of organic architecture. Reima Pietilä himself said of the building:

References

External links

DIPOLI Congress Centre
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Espoo Convention centers in Finland Modernist architecture in Finland Aalto University Reima and Raili Pietilä buildings