Raili and Reima Pietilä

The national side pays tribute to Finnish architects Raili and Reima Pietilä and their organic approach to modern architecture. Their nature-inspired style is expressed through the façade of Dipoli, a building the Pietiläs completed in 1966. At the top centre the commemoration inscription "RAILI REIMA PIETILÄ", one word per line. The mint mark of the Dutch Mint — the caduceus — together with the country abbreviation "FI" and the year "2026" are arranged at the upper left edge.

Raili and Reima Pietilä are among the most distinctive voices in postwar Finnish architecture. Reima Pietilä, born in Turku in 1923, and his wife and collaborator Raili, born in 1926, together developed a design language that deliberately broke away from the rationalist dogmas of their time. Their thinking drew on the Finnish landscape — on forests, rock formations, and coastlines — translating these organic patterns into floor plans, façades, and spatial concepts. The result was buildings that resisted easy categorization within the standard schools of modernism: too sculptural for the functionalists, too rational for the expressionists.

Their best-known early work, the Dipoli student center in Espoo, completed in 1966, brought the couple international recognition. The massive granite-and-concrete façade seemed to grow out of the ground itself, offering a counterpoint to the smooth internationalism of the period. Later projects such as the Metso city library in Tampere (1986) and embassy buildings in New Delhi and Berlin cemented their reputation as a duo who understood architecture as a topographic gesture. Reima Pietilä died in 1993; Raili Pietilä carried on their shared work and dedicated decades to preserving the studio's legacy. To mark Reima Pietilä's 100th birthday, Finland honors the work of both architects with a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2026.