The Aleksanteri Institute moved into the neoclassical building on Unioninkatu 33 in 2006 after the University of Helsinki purchased the premises from the Bank of Finland. Originally the building, dating back to 1848, had served as part of the city's hospital. During the past fifteen years, it has proved to be a very suitable place to conduct research, teaching and public events. It's been the home and nerve centre of the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies, and national and international master's and doctoral training networks. The highly successfull Visiting Fellows Program was also established here.
All the above mentioned funcions will continue in the new premises too, of course. Unioninkatu 40 is an interesting mix of funcionalist and classicist styles and offers a lot of flexibility. The name of the building, Metsätalo, refers to the first occupants: the Finnish Forest Institute and departments of forestry at the University of Helsinki. Nowadays the building is occupied by the faculty of arts.
Metsätalo provides excellent facilites for resuming the open seminar and lecture series that have been taking place in Zoom for the past year and a half. The Aleksanteri Institute annually hosts around 60 such open events with more than 7000 participants. In addition, we will be happy to take up the meetings and gatherings with our diverse interest groups from highschool students to foreign diplomats in the new premises as soon as the COVID19 situation is stable enough.
There will be a small change to the postal address of the Aleksanteri Institute, as the P.O. Box numner for Metsätalo is 24. Other contact information will remain the same.