Dear friend of Arkadia, You are warmly welcome to a series of talks on architecture jointly organised by Arkadia Oy International Bookshop and Archtours. www.archtours.com   The first presentation will be held by architect Marianna Heikinheimo and will take place on Thursday 11.2 at 6pm: The Bock house, the Burtz house and the Hellenius house on Senate Square. Join us! Warm regards, Ian www.arkadiabookshop.fi – Entrance is free and green tea will be served. A donation of €2 (or more!) is suggested and would be welcome. – Important: The talk is open to everyone and will be in English. Marianna Heikinheimo (s. 1963) is a Helsinki-based architect and a researcher of architectural history. She is also the managing director of Archtours Ltd, which is a travel agency specialized in organizing architectural tours in the Nordic region. Heikinheimo together with her research team has recently finished a building historical survey of buildings 20, 22 and 24 on Aleksanterinkatu in the Leijona block, which was commissioned by Tilakeskus of the City of Helsinki. www.archtours.com marianna.heikinheimo@archtours.com The Bock house, the Burtz house and the Hellenius house The Bock house, the Burtz house and the Hellenius house, all from the late 18th century, stand on the southern side of the Senate Square. They were reshaped in the early 19th century as parts of the new monumental centre. The Senate Square was in actual fact a display window of the newly founded Grand Duchy to Europe. The influence of German architect Carl Ludwig Engel is mostly clearly seen in the grand exterior and the unique interiors of the Bock house. All the three buildings came to ownership of the City of Helsinki by the end of the 19th century and since then have been understood as one whole along with the former hotel Seurahuone in the same block. There have been two architectural competitions about the Helsinki City Hall to this block during the 20th century. Finally the three buildings underwent a thorough restoration in the 1980s, which was designed and conducted by architect Aarne Ruusuvuori. Today the Empire style layers are blended to more recent minimalist spaces.