Dipoli

Dipoli is a conference center located in Espoo, Finland as a part of the Otaniemi campus of the Aalto University (successor of Helsinki University of Technology, TKK). It was designed by architects Reima and Raili Pietilä and completed in 1966.

Name

The name of the building is a pun: it can mean dipole in Finnish, but also "the second Poli", the second building of the polytechnic students. The original students' clubhouse, "the Old Poli" (Finnish: Vanha Poli), was an Art Nouveau building located on Lönnrotinkatu in Helsinki that was left behind when the university moved to Otaniemi.

History

When Helsinki University of Technology moved from Helsinki to Espoo in the early 1960s, an architecture competition was held for what would become the new building for the Student Union of the university. The competition was won by architects Reima and Raili Pietilä, and their 1961 design was used as the basis for the design of the Dipoli building. Work began in 1965, and the building was ready for use in autumn 1966.