Reactivated in 1919. Vilnius University, from its first years of operation, faced many personnel, financial and accommodation problems. The latter issue was attempted to be solved temporarily by adapting part of the real estate allocated to the University for professors' flats and academic dormitories. In the first year of the university's organisation, an academic mensa was launched and an academic dormitory was opened in a house at 26 Zamkowa St. In the following years, the problem of housing for academic students was regulated with the utmost difficulty. After many efforts, thanks to the financial assistance of the All-Christian Students' Federation, the post-convent building (former Augustinian Order, cancelled by the Tsarist authorities) at 11 Bakszta Street was renovated, where the men's bursa, mensa and headquarters of various academic organisations were placed. In 1928/1929 the Stefan Batory University had cheap accommodation for 160 students. At the same time, efforts were made to build an Academic House.

History of construction

A commission for the construction of the Academic House of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius was appointed by the Senate on 21 October 1927. The undertaking of the investment became feasible when, in 1928, after a successful resolution of disputed property issues, a suitable site for the construction located in Gora Bouffalova Street was acquired.

The commission entrusted the development of the project to architect Aleksander Kodelski. His design was to consist of three main parts:

- a residential dormitory, with a target capacity of 200 persons, comprising 84 double rooms and 32 single rooms, as well as a number of rooms supplementing the residential programme (infirmary, gymnasium, swimming pool with showers, laundry, etc.);

- a representative area - fraternity offices, meeting rooms, dining room, kitchen;.

- an administrative section, with projected servants' flats, servants' quarters and cellars.

From the outset, the project was planned to be completed in stages, with completion planned for 1940. Construction began in August 1930, with architect Franciszek Wojciechowski in charge of the works. Work was completed two years later, and on 21 February 1932 the building was officially opened and consecrated. This was just the completion of the first stage - half of the residential section for 104 students was put into use. Despite the modest - compared to the planned - volume, the opening of the dormitory was received with admiring enthusiasm. "It is impressive to see the friendly edifice, the grey Academic House against the grey background of the crisis that is shouting from everywhere," wrote Józef Bujnowski.

The second stage of construction - the extension of the residential wing to include a second, analogous section - began in mid-1935, and the entire residential section was handed over to the public in 1936.

In the academic year 1938/39, 256 students lived in the Dormitory on Góra Bouffałowa Street. Czesław Miłosz was also among the residents of the House.

The architecture of the Academic House and its designer

Entrusting the design of the Academic House to the young architect Aleksander Kodelski (1898-1972) was no accident and was even symbolic. Kodelski was one of the first year students of architecture at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Stefan Batory University; after the course was abolished, he moved to Warsaw with his wife Anna, also an architecture student. At the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology, he defended his diploma thesis in 1927, prepared while still in Vilnius, under the supervision of Professor Ludwik Sokołowski, and began his design practice. Aleksander Kodelski went down in the history of Polish architecture in the interwar period as the author of many modernist structures, including sports facilities at Lazienkowska Street in Warsaw, as well as pavilions designed together with his wife for the cable car to Kasprowy Wierch and the meteorological observatory building there.

The Academic House in Vilnius was among Aleksander Kodelski's first independent projects. The conceptual perspective drawing shows the compact mass of an imposing three-winged edifice, designed in the spirit of the new monumentalism. However, this original concept underwent significant revisions in the course of further work, which modernised the architecture of the building. In the completed residential wing, the massive cornice and attic wall crowning the façade were abandoned, and a horizontal, strip-shaped window layout and clinker cladding contrasted with grey plaster were introduced. Thanks to the modern reinforced concrete construction, the functionally planned interior and the set-back of the high ground floor - a high-class modernist building was created. Somewhat exaggeratedly, but with appreciative admiration, it was described in the press that "at first glance it resembles a miniature skyscraper in Warsaw". The extension of the building with a second, symmetrical part, carried out between 1935 and 1936, gave the architecture its final modernist form.

Historical address: 4 Góra Bouffałowa Street

Contemporary address: Tauro g. 5