Dipoli is building of

Aalto University Aalto University (; ) is a public university, 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 Helsinki School of Economic ...

, located in the university's

Otaniemi Otaniemi (Finnish language, Finnish), or Otnäs (Swedish language, Swedish), is a district of Espoo, Finland. It is located near the border with Helsinki, the Capital (political), capital of Finland. Otaniemi is located on the southern shore of ...

campus in

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. 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; ; , HUT in international usage) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area, and it was one of the three universities from which the modern d ...

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 moment, electric dipole deals with the separation of the positive and negative electric charges found in any electromagnetic system. A simple ...

in Finnish, but also "the second Poly", the second building of the polytechnic students. The original

Polytechnic Students' Union The Polytechnic Students' Union or Sampo Building is a National romantic style, National Romantic building at Lönnrotinkatu 29 in central Helsinki, designed in 1903 by Karl Lindahl (architect), Karl Lindahl and Walter Thomé. It has since become a ...

, now called the "Old Poly" (), was a National Romantic building located on Lönnrotinkatu in Helsinki that was left behind when the university moved to

History

Helsinki University of Technology moved from

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

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, see ...

. 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.

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