Raili Pietilä (1926–2021), born Raili Paatelainen, was a Finnish architect who did most of her work with her husband, Reima Pietilä; from 1963 all their buildings were credited to "Raili and Reima Pietilä". She graduated in architecture from the Helsinki University of Technology in 1956. In 1960 she and Reima Pietilä opened a joint office, renamed Raili and Reima Pietilä architects in 1975, and they married in 1963. A major exhibition of their work, "Challenging Modern Architecture", was held at the Museum of Finnish Architecture in 2008.
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Their Kaleva Church in Tampere (1966) is built from 17 tall hollow concrete U-shapes, cast by slip-forming like a grain silo, with full-height windows between them and a plan shaped like a fish. The Metso Library in Tampere (1986), won in a 1978 competition, takes its name from the capercaillie it resembles from above, and its forms draw on Celtic patterns, animal shapes and glacial landforms. Mäntyniemi in Helsinki (1993) was the first official residence built for the President of Finland, set by the sea and finished inside in granite, birch and concrete.
