“We wanted facilities for students where they could organise their own activities. To encourage people to put down roots here in Lappeenranta, to create a sense of community,” recalls TEK’s Regional Advisor Saku Laapio.
The two-storey Student Union Building is almost 4 000 m² in size. It was designed by architect Sami Vuorinen. The building houses a student lunch restaurant, an auditorium, spaces for self-study and groupwork, the office of the Student Union and guild rooms, a small grocery store, and a basement with space for recreational activities and a sauna. The building is used for events such as sitsit, choir rehearsals, workshops and the FinnHits party during Wappu.
TEK has rented the premises it owns on the 2nd floor of the Student Union Building to LUT University. When the classrooms fell into disuse, TEK renovated them into groupwork spaces for students in 2020–2022.
“I asked students what we should do with the windowless room. I was thinking about a bar counter, but they were having none of it! The students wanted a space for working out,” says Laapio.
