Viikin opetus- ja koetila (Viks undervisnings- och försöksgård)

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

The Viikki teaching and experimental farm complex of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Helsinki was built in the 1930s to provide the first higher-education teaching in Finland on a model agricultural farm. The unified farm centre, designed for teaching and research purposes, has largely survived in the form designed by architect Jussi Paatela. The extensive former fields of Latokartano in Viikki, which have been under cultivation since the 16th century, form a landscape-significant historical agrarian layer in an urbanised environment.

The Viikki teaching and research farm, with its buildings from the 1930s to the 1950s, is situated on a wooded islet that rises higher than its surroundings, in the middle of the broad field landscape of Viikki. The field area is bordered to the south by the lush shore of Vanhankaupunginselkä, to the east by the high hill ridges of Herttoniemi, and to the west by urbanised hill areas.

The northern edge of the farmyard is dominated by the 3-4-storey laboratory building (1939) and the student building (1950). On the southern edge are the free-stall barn and cowshed built in the 1930s. Both are impressive agricultural buildings, with a stone and rendered lower storey and a wooden, red-ochre-painted upper section. Between the cowshed and the field lie several outbuildings of different ages. Outside the farmyard area are the stone agricultural museum completed in 1937 and four residential buildings completed in 1948-1955. The farm centre's buildings, renovated, remain in their original use.

History

The Viikki Latokartano estate was established in the 16th century as a farm of the royal manor at the mouth of the Vantaanjoki. The estate was subsequently an official farm of the governor and later of soldiers. The estate has always been state-owned.

Higher agricultural education was transferred to what is now the University of Helsinki in 1896. In its early years, teaching in agriculture and forestry operated in various temporary premises in the city centre, and experimental cultivation was carried out at the Jokiniemi experimental farm in Helsinki Rural Municipality, founded by the Agricultural Board and owned by the state.

Viikki Latokartano was transferred to the administration of the University of Helsinki in 1931, after which it was renovated for use by the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry by the Vankeinhoitovirasto, which had leased the estate. The farm centre of the teaching and experimental farm was established in 1935 on a wooded islet south-east of the estate's main building. The buildings of the farm centre, bordered by fields, were completed in 1934-1939 and 1946-1956. In addition to the new buildings, the fields were improved into experimental plots and pastures suitable for research use.

Architect Jussi Paatela was responsible for the design of the model cowshed, pigsty, stables, threshing barn and storage sheds, and he also designed the Metsätalo for the university in 1939.

Before the wars, the laboratory and national agricultural museum buildings designed by Paatela were completed, partly with prison labour. The foundation of the agricultural museum's collections was formed by objects that Dr Gösta Grotenfelt had collected first for the Mustiala agricultural school and later for museums located in Tikkurila in connection with the Jokiniemi experimental farm. Due to lack of space, it was decided to move the collections to the teaching and experimental farm to be established in Viikki. The agricultural museum was considered to complement teaching and research. The starting point was to create a building that was recognisable, also in its exterior, as relating to agriculture. The museum building does resemble a stone cowshed, but the window band under the eaves connects the building to the architecture of its time.

The experimental farm's arable area of roughly 230 hectares is still in active use. The Viikki fields are part of the buffer zone of the Viikki-Vanhankaupunginlahti nature conservation area.

A decision on the campus area outside the site was made in 1949. The planning competition was won by architect Veli Paatela. On the campus area north of the teaching and experimental farm, the Latokartano student village residential area was built from the 1950s onwards, and in the 1960s the buildings of the Viikki Department of Agricultural Sciences were built. The campus area has grown considerably in the 1990s and 2000s.