Ressun lukio became an authorized IB school in 2002 and in the early years shared space with the national side at Kalevankatu. In the autumn of 2020 the expanding IB side moved into a space of its own: the newly renovated Ruoholahdenkatu 23.
The RK23 building, constructed in 1913 based on plans drawn by architects Emil Ernst Fabritius (who also designed the larger of the bear castles at Korkeasaari) and Valter Gabriel Jung (who also designed Torni), was a tobacco factory in a former life.
The original floor plan didn’t include what is now the school lobby (or the floors above it).
When it was built, RK23 towered above the surrounding structures, mostly wooden single-story buildings.
RK23 was expanded between 1929 and 1930, giving the building the distinct wedge-shape we know and love today.
The basement of RK23 has, at times, housed a warehouse, a post office, a telegraph office, a rather impractical 19-spot parking garage and, since 2013, an Alepa.
Since our moving in, during the autumn of 2020, the IB students have gradually been making RK23 feel more like home, continuing to carve out new traditions and identity and community.
We have a library that supports the IB Diploma Programme. The library operates in both premises, Kalevankatu and Ruoholahdenkatu.
All our science books are in the Ruoholahdenkatu library and the fiction in the Kalevankatu library.
You can find the Kalevankatu library in the basement, next to student council room (room 017), and the Ruoholahdenkatu library on the sixth floor.