THE BUILDING OF THE MUSEUM
The building now housing the Museum of Finnish Architecture was constructed for the Learned Societies in 1899. The idea of a building for the Societies was kindled at the beginning of the 1890s, the site was reserved in 1896, and the drawings were made by Magnus Schjerfbeck, chief architect at the National Board of Public Building. The planned Neo-Renaissance building with a cubic central volume and two wings was not realized as such; only the central part was constructed, including library, assembly hall with gallery, studies and a monumental staircase which takes a third of the building.

Several efforts have been made to complete the building. In 1907 the library was proposed to be extended to a semi-circular annex on the courtyard side. In 1922 Schjerfbeck made a new proposal for extension, this time modifying the original wing idea. Neither plan was realized. The Learned Societies moved to the House of the Estates (Säätytalo) in 1931, and the Kasarmikatu 24 building was assigned to the Gymnastics Department of the University of Helsinki. The former assembly hall was filled with gymnastic equipment, and showers were built in the attic. When the Faculty of Sports and Health Sciences moved to Jyväskylä at the beginning of the 1970s the building was vacated. In 1981 the Museum of Finnish Architecture moved there after repairs and restorations from an old wooden villa in Puistokatu.

The latest effort of extension was the Temporary Exhibitions Hall which was to connect the two museums located on the same site, the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum. There was an architectural competition for the hall in 1987. The winning proposal placed the exhibition hall underground. The extension was not constructed, and the completion of the 100-year-old building is still pending.

The functions of the Museum of Finnish Architecture are located on the three floors of the building as follows:
Ground floor: ticket office, bookshop, library, offices
1st floor: exhibitions
2nd floor: models, Architecture Archive, offices.

MAGNUS SCHJERFBECK (1860-1933)
Magnus Schjerfbeck graduated from the Finnish Polytechnical Institute in 1881. He made his whole career at the National Board of Public Building, first as a temporary architect and later as chief architect until 1926. His design work focussed on hospitals and schools. His work reflects the general trends of the architecture of his time. Up to the turn of the century his designs are characterized by the Neo-Renaissance as exemplified by the Deaconess Hospital and the Learned Societies building in Helsinki and the Normal Lyceum school in Tampere. His office duties included the design of a peculiar wooden building, the Langinkoski Imperial Fishing Lodge built in Kotka in 1889. The works designed at the beginning of the 20th century, such as the Nummela Sanatorium from 1903, have art nouveau features in their castle-like overall appearance and in the details, while the Tampere Hospital from 1909 tends towards classicism. One of Schjerfbeck's late works is the red-brick Tampere Lyceum for Girls from 1924.