Reima and Raili Pietilä

Reima Pietilä (August 25, 1923 – August 26, 1993) was a Finnish architect. He did most of his work together with his wife Raili Pietilä (born August 15 1926). Their daughter (the only child), Annukka Pietilä (born 1963), is also a qualified architect.

Reima Pietilä was professor of architecture at the University of Oulu from 1973 to 1979.

The life and career of Reima Pietilä has been well charted in the writings of British architectural historian-critics Roger Connah and Malcolm Quantrill, as well as Norwegian theorist and historian Christian Norberg-Schulz. Their basic question is to what extent Pietilä goes against the grain of a Finnish modernist architecture concerned with rationalism and economy. The whole question is problematic, however, because Finland's most-famous architect, Alvar Aalto, was also seen as someone who broke the mould of pure modernism, someone who indeed talked about extending the notion of rationalism. Pietilä saw his work as organic architecture, but also very much modern. Pieilä intellectualised his position, and was well-read in philosophy. He was very much concerned with the issue of a phenomenology of place, epitomised by the Student Union building Dipoli (1961–66) at Helsinki University of Technology. This concern for place also extended to his concerns about national identity and Finnishness, even exploring the Finnish language to generate architectural form. The same then applied also for his works abroad, in Kuwait and Delhi.

A major exhibition of the work of Reima and Raili Pietilä was held in 2008 (from February 27 to May 25)at the Museum of Finnish Architecture in Helsinki, titled "Raili and Reima Pietilä. Challenging Modern Architecture".

Life and Works

Significant buildings

* 1956–1958 Finnish pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair [http://expomuseum.com/1958/]
* 1959–1966 The Kaleva Church in Tampere [http://www.tampereenseurakunnat.fi/kirkot/IE/p7.htm]
* 1961–1966 Dipoli student assembly building in Otaniemi Espoo [http://www.dipoli.tkk.fi/english/index.html]
* 1962–1982 Suvikumpu residential area in Tapiola Espoo [http://housingprototypes.org/project?File_No=FIN004]
* 1963–1985 Finnish embassy in New Delhi India
* 1973–1975 the sauna at Hvitträsk in Kirkkonummi [http://www.nba.fi/en/hvittrask_en]
* 1973–1982 Sief Palace Area Buildings in Kuwait City Kuwait [http://www.kolumbus.fi/johannes.turunen/ark_reima.html]
* 1978–1986 Metso, city of Tampere main library [http://www.tampere.fi/kirjasto/english.htm] , in which the Moomin Museum is situated
* 1979–1982 Lieksa Church in Lieksa northern Karelia [http://personal.inet.fi/koti/urho.virkkunen/kuvat/Nahtavyys/slides/Lieksan%20kirkko.html]
* 1979–1989 Shopping center and community center in Hervanta Tampere
* 1984–1993 Mäntyniemi, Residency of the Finnish president in Helsinki

References

* Roger Connah, "Writing Architecture. Fantomas Fragments Fictions - An Architectural Journey Through the 20th Century". MIT Press, Cambridge, 2000.
* Malcolm Quantrill and Matti K. Mäkinen, "The Unmade Bed of Architecture". Rakennustieto, Helsinki, 2005.
* Malcolm Quantrill and Reima Pietilä, "One man's odyssey in search of Finnish architecture: An anthology in honour of Reima Pietilä". Art Consulting Scandinavia, Helsinki, 1988.
* Malcolm Quantrill, "Reima Pietila: Architecture, Context and Modernism". Rizzoli, New York, 1985.
* Christian Norberg-Schulz, "Nightlands. Nordic Building." MIT Press, Cambridge, 1997.

External links

* [http://www.tampere.fi/matkailu/english/architec.htm Reima and Raili Pietiläs architecture in Tampere]
* [http://www.ark.fi/ark6_04/leader.html Creativity permitted?]
* [http://www.dipoli.tkk.fi/dipoli_media/200002_tyoluettelo.html List of works by Reima and Raili Pietilä at the Dipoli site] (in Finnish)
* [http://www.tampere.fi/kirjasto/mtspie.htm "The Architects" at the Tampere library site] (in Finnish)