reima pietila research

COMPARATIVE ARCHETICTURE TOUGHT

AR 321 Supervised by : DR. FAROOQ MOFTI ARCH AHMAD FALATAH Final research:

ARCHETICT REIMA PIETILA

Designed by: SULTAN ALHARTHI 0910163

Reima Pietila was born in Turku, Finland in 25 August 1923. He worked for the city of Helsinki for a short time before winning the 1957 competition for the Finnish Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair. In 1960 he set up a practice with his wife, Raili Pietila.

Distancing himself from the more rational studies of his Finnish contemporaries, Pietila concentrated on an exploration of the "form of form". This led to a series of complex, impressionistic, free-form designs.

Husband-and-wife designers Raili and Reima Pietilä forged their own path through modernism. Reima had qualified as an architect in 1953, just a year after Aalto completed the breakthrough Säynätsalon Town Hall, and two before Le Corbusier would unveil Notre Dame du Haut. Eero Saarinen began designing MIT’s Kresge Auditorium at about the same time. Coming of age when even modernist masters were searching for an alternative to rigid functionalism, Reima Pietilä quickly began experimenting with unique mathematical models and expressionistic shapes in his paintings. In architecture, his research yielded the Finnish Pavilion for Expo ’58 in Brussels, and like Notre Dame du Haut, the 1961 design for the Dipoli student-union building, in Espoo, Finland, has an organic, sculptural quality.

Pietila's theoretic isolation from architects within Finland, led him to work abroad. Much of this international work influenced his later Finnish projects.

Always questioning the relationship between architectural theory and practice, Pietila established a discipline for his development of form.

A professor of Architecture at Oulu University between 1973 and 1979, Pietila ceased teaching to concentrate on design.

Pietila represents a clear lineage from Alvar Aalto and Lars Sonck yet he diverged to produce a regionally relevant architecture of international significance.

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

1: 1956–1958 Finnish pavilion at the Brussels World's Fair

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

2: 1959–1966 The Kaleva Church in Tampere

Haiku

Such weighty " pillars Create unfillable ,void Dwarfing those "who kneel

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

3: 1961–1966 Dipoli student assembly building in Otaniemi, Espoo

Dipoli Conference Center Architect: Reima Pietila Location: Otaniemi, Finland Date: 1966 Building Type: conference center, student center Construction System: concrete and copper sheathing Climate: cold Context: suburban campus Style: Expressionist Modern Notes: Curved organic shapes, geomorphic

coppersheathed walls

huge boulders

"Dipoli, undoubtedly the Pietilas' best known work, with its huge boulders, copper-sheathed walls and concrete roof, reads as a primeval shelter and and the primal cave."

— William Morgan, in Randall J. Van Vunckt

Otaniemi is the leading technology hub in the Nordic countries, featuring a unique mix of top-level research organizations, academic institutions and technology businesses. Located within the Helsinki metropolitan area, Otaniemi is a community of over 25,000 people that includes 15,000 students of the Helsinki University of Technology and 10,000 technology professionals. The EU Commission has nominated Otaniemi twice as one of the most innovative regions in Europe.

The corporate headquarters of companies such as Nokia, Kone and Fortum are within a walking distance from Otaniemi, and other major technology companies such as HP,

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

4: 1962–1982 Suvikumpu residential area in Tapiola Espoo

Project Architect

Suvikumpu/Suvituuli Pietil채, Raili & Reima

City

Tapiola (Helsinki)

Country Address

Finland Suvikummunrinne, Suvikummuntie Clustered low-rise Slab, point-access NA

BuildingType Number of Dwellings Date Built Dwelling Types No. Floors Section Type Exterior Finish Materials Construction Type Ancillary Services

9/1962 - 2/1981 2 br. flats, several dif. types 2 flats painted concrete, stucco, wood siding & trim, wood windows R-C frame shopping center, inbuilding storage

Suvikumpu is one of the Tapiola residential neighborhoods south and west of Tapiola Center. The rolling, wooded landscape of Suvikumpu is punctuated by a small, rocky hill which was part of a series of fortified positions left from World War II. Pietil채 won a competition for this site in 1962 and the complex which we see today was built in three distinct phases over the next twenty years. While the program, building technology and use of materials evolved during this time, the original site and building strategies were consistently followed resulting in a very unified complex.

The idea of an ell-shaped group of buildings to frame the hill along the north side of the site, another group extending perpendicular to the hill along the lower space of the site to the south, and a third group of communal spaces marking the intersection of the two groups on the west is clearly evident both in the competition model and in the completed project. The original design included housing for about 500 people but space for only about 300 was actually built in the first phase of construction between 1964 and 1969. Another 32 dwellings were built in the second phase between 198182. The third phase included the small shopping center, flower shop and several apartments and was built in 1983.

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

5: 1963–1985 Finnish embassy in New Delhi India

The Embassy’s design ideas focus on the roof shapes which create a sculptural site layout seen from the air. The architects thought back to the shapes of Lake Kitkajärvi in Northern Finland, where the ice age combed the rock into parallel furrows and hills, and where glaciers created lakes, serpentine peninsulas and islands.

The irregularly cut roof eaves resemble the snow sculptures that are formed in the winter ice around the Gulf of Finland.

This is the very bond between Finland and India in the Embassy’s architecture.

The “art of winter” works in a stunningly same way on Himalayan ridges as it does in Nordic latitudes.

Often said to be among the most beautiful ones in Delhi, the Embassy compound comprises the Ambassador’s residence , the chancery, the staff apartments, and a Finnish sauna.

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

6: 1973–1975 the sauna at Hvitträsk in Kirkkonummi

Hvittr채sk was designed to be a studio home for the members of the Finnish architecture firm Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen. It later became the private residence of Eliel Saarinen. It is located about 30 kilometers (19 mi) west of Helsinki in Kirkkonummi, Finland.

The design was developed and construction began during the year of 1902. The house was named after Lake Vittr채sk, on which it was built.

[H]vittr채sk literally means White Lake.

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

7: 1973–1982 Sief Palace Area Buildings in Kuwait City, Kuwait

is a )‫ قصر السيف‬Seif Palace (Arabic, palace in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Located opposite the Grand Mosque, one of Seif Palace’s bestknown features is the watch tower, covered in blue tiles and with a roof plated in pure gold.[Local materials such as clay, rocks, limestone, wood and metals were used in its construction.

The tower of the Seif Palace received a direct hit from an incoming missile during the first Gulf War (1990-91) which destroyed the dial room. Smith of Derby Group replaced the iconic clock, and were the only non-US company to be awarded a contract in this reconstructive period.

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

8: 1978–1986 Metso, city of Tampere main librar

It is an eye-catching landmark, placed in the core of , because from a birdas eye the city named Metso perspective the buildings look like a bird carrying a shield. This distinctive and memorable building contains more than 1.5 million books, 91,000 recordings, eminent documents, and maps.

Thousands of visitors enjoy visiting here each day.

The lower floor of the building is home to the City’s Mineral Museum, Moomin Valley, and European information service of Pirkanmaa, while upstairs one can find the library itself, along with a popular coffee shop and visiting exhibition.

PIETILA’S Significant buildings:

9: 1984–1993 Mäntyniemi, Residence of the Finnish president in Helsinki

Raili and Reima Pietilä

During the 1960s the Finnish architects Raili (born 1926) and Reima (19231993) Pietilä gained international attention for their highly original architecture. Which represented a new organic approach to modern architecture, in a period that was otherwise dominated by standardized modular architecture.

Their poetic and expressive architecture focused very much on the relation to the actual site and specific surroundings, together with an inherent appreciation of a sensory and phenomenological experience of architecture.

Reima Pietilä as an articulate architectural theorist and inspirational teacher, saw great potential in the use of languageas an instrument for understanding architectural problems.

Reima Pietilä died in 1993. Raili Pietilä and their daughter, the architect Annukka Pietilä, donated the office’s archive of circa 30,000 drawings and other material to the Museum of Finnish Architecture in 2002.

Thank You